Bookey Peek

This is the third in Bookey Peek's series of books about the wildlife sanctuary that she and her partner run in the Matobo Hills in Southern Zimbabwe. Once again he story and the telling of it are both done very well. As Peek herself notes, there are still many more stories to tell - because (as you come to realise) she has a talent for telling other people's stories as well as her own, and then of course the stories that the animals share with her (by dint of her careful observations). All of these stories blend together against the background of a country that you begin to appreciate is much more than a few headlines and a sinister reputation. It is perhaps Peek's greatest achievement that after reading these books you get a hankering to see and experience this country for yourself.

Looking back on the three books which I read in fairly quick succession, it seemed at first that the first had a kind of wild energy that settled down in the subsequent books, and to a certain extent that is true. But the reader would do well to start with any of the three volumes, and I suspect might find - as I did - that Peek has infused all of the books with an extraordinary 'aliveness' and given granted the reader the gift of a kind of astonishment as they find themselves drawn into a world they hadn't imagined existed. Highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)

Sequels, such as this one to Bookey Peek's first book about her Zimbabwean wildlife reserve, can never achieve the surprise (and perhaps delight) of a first essay into someone else's world. But it is a measure of the richness of that world that her second book engages and entertains as much as the first. Peek's talent for recounting the small details as well as the broad strokes of human and animal existence (and how little separates them) brings to life a extraordinary place and time, the Matobo Hills in southern Zimbabwe in the early years of the new century. This was a time of hyper-inflation and the breakdown of civil order and infrastructure, as Zimbabwe spiralled into chaos. And yet, and this is a very Peek kind of observation, she notes that in some ways this brought out the qualities of mutual support among people, and she sets her focus on the next generation, teaching children to appreciate Africa's wildlife and environment.

What is missing is the rawness of her first book, where the travails of existence of her family and the peril that faces the world they live in are slowly revealed. Inconvenience turning into difficulty, difficulty turning into nightmare, but in such an insidious way (and told so well) that the author and the reader share the experience of reflecting on how it is possible to regard the impossible as possible, and live through and rise above bad times. But whereas in her first book it is not at all clear whether Peek and her place in the bush will survive, by the second book you appreciate that this is a person with a huge amount of resilience - we used to call it 'pluck'. And you begin to understand that this resilience comes not from some sense of superiority based on race or religion or birthright, but from the example of the animals all around her. In that sense, Wild Honey is equally the story of the warthog and the honey beaver that are adopted by Peek, and who in turn adopt her, into that wider family of life on earth. Highly recommended, but start with 'All the Way Home' to really appreciate this.… (plus d'informations)

My initial impression was that this would be another sentimental memoir, and it took 5 pages or so to realize that the author has a talent for writing, for natural science and for, well, life. The story once it picks up continues at breakneck pace for 340 pages, and I enjoyed it so much that as soon as I finished it I ordered the two sequels. The author has an acute eye for landscape and animal (including human) behavior. There is sentiment, but perhaps it's better characterized as a passion for things that matter to her, the animals the people and the place, and her genius for story-telling allows (indeed compels) the reader to share in it. Highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)