BOOK OF THE DAY: Wildflower: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Murder of Joan Root. By Mark Seal, Weidenfeld Nicolson, 232pp, £14.99
Mark Seal, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, was so moved when researching the story of an idealistic, attractive Kenyan woman's struggle to defend her country's rural beauty and vulnerable wildlife against human predators that he has magnified his article into a romantic, heroic and tragic biography.
Joan Root was the only child of Edmund Thorpe, described by Seal as “the son of a British yachting family”, and Lillian Walker, a South African. On arrival in Kenya in 1928, he joined the Kenya Defence Force and succeeded in subduing temporarily the gangs of poachers who were “raiding the bush, killing everything in sight and hauling away game”. He and Lillian conceived Joan in 1935 while they were picnicking on the shore of Lake Naivasha.
After policing, Thorne dabbled in growing coffee. Then, more adventurously, he established safari tours especially for Americans. At first they were safaris with guns for would-be Hemingways, but he soon got the idea of eco-friendlier photo safaris. His company, Kenya Thru the Lens, was a great success, and he was glad when Joan, aged 19, proved to be an enthusiastic and efficient assistant.
It was on safari that she encountered Alan Root, who, in his early twenties, was already a celebrated wildlife cameraman. He photographed migrant animals for Serengeti Shall Not Die, which won the 1959 Academy Award for best documentary.
Root fell for Joan at first sight; they got married, and in Joan’s words, filmed wildlife together on “a safari that would last twenty years”. His talent and her industrious support enabled them to make films in the 1970s and ‘80s that won them recognition, according to Seal, as “the world’s greatest wildlife filmmakers”. Their subjects ranged from the Galapagos species that inspired Darwin to East African lions, gorillas, snakes and termites. The Roots patiently spent months on each project in order to achieve intimate close-ups of even the most dangerous and evasive creatures. Perhaps their most spectacular exercise was a photographic hot-air balloon flight over Kilimanjaro.
They made their base in a farmhouse overlooking Lake Naivasha, which Joan considered the most beautiful part of the most beautiful country on Earth. She could not have children, so lavished her maternal instincts on caring for the wildlife that came to their property, including an orphaned elephant, an aardvark and a caracal, a wildcat with razor-sharp teeth and claws that allowed Joan to fondle it. She regarded these and others not as pets but as “visitors recuperating until they could make their way once again in the wild”.
Alan eventually left Joan for two women, one after the other, who were able to bear children. Joan devoted the rest of her life, until the age of 69, caring for animals and campaigning against the illegal fishing and pollution that were spoiling Lake Naivasha. Seal’s account of her daring organisation and subsidy of a “task force” to turn poachers over to the police is vivid, detailed and ultimately melancholy.
Her vigilantes provoked fierce resentment. The story reaches its climax when two masked intruders break into her house at night and riddle her with bullets. Their identities are suspected but have never been proved.
Patrick Skene Catling has published 24 volumes of fiction and non-fiction