My Pride and Joy

The millions who enjoyed Joy Adamson's books (Born Free, Living Free, Elsa have a treat awaiting them in her husband's account of their stormy life together, his devotion to lions and of his work in the years since her brutal murder. For George Adamson, it has been a 60-year love affair with the big cats, reaching a pinnacle when Born Free was filmed. The human stars, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, became staunch friends; the author trained dozens of lions for the film and sought to return them to the wild, with limited success (such projects were controversial, and retrained lions were not welcome in Kenya's wildlife parks). He has scores of marvelous stories about individual lionsElsa, of course, and her cubs; Boy, who killed a man and had to be destroyed; Christian, a fourth-generation zoo animal raised in an antique shop in London, who successfully made the transition. The book is a charmer, for readers who like wild animals, Africa or action. Photos. (May 4)