Anthony Bourke - A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond Between Two Friends and a Lion

In 1971 we wrote A Lion Called Christian, the story of a lion from London who returned to Africa. And now, forty years later, the Internet's YouTube has introduced a new world audience to Christian, an audience that is intrigued and enchanted by his extraordinary story.

We were two young travelers from Australia who had just arrived in London and unexpectedly bought a lion cub from Harrods Department Store. We lived with him in London, then in the country, until it was arranged for him to be returned to Kenya and rehabilitated by George Adamson of Born Free fame.

Two documentaries, The Lion from World's End and Christian the Lion, were made about George Adamson assembling a pride of lions, centered on Christian's return to the wild. The YouTube clip features our unforgettable reunion with a now much bigger lion on our return to Kenya one year later in 1971.

This 2009 edition of the book is revised and updated. We are both proud of the 1971 edition, written when we were in our early twenties, and this edition is true to the original text. However, we took the opportunity to add new information and make some clarifications, and in some instances we have tried to express ourselves more effectively.

Forty years later, some of our memories are very vivid and some are vaguer. We have consulted two very good books that refer to Christian that have been published subsequently: George Adamson's 1986 autobiography My Pride and Joy, and Adrian House's 1993 The Great Safari: The Lives of George and Joy Adamson. These books verified the chronology of some particular events for us and provided new information. Another source was the letters Ace wrote to his parents from this period that until recently he was unaware had been kept. The first edition of A Lion Called Christian concluded in 1970, and this new edition has been updated to include our visits to Christian in 1972.

This edition is in response to the great interest in Christian's story generated by the YouTube clip of our 1971 reunion. Late in 2007, we began receiving e-mails alerting us that the reunion footage was on YouTube. We do not know who posted it, and we would not have known how to do it ourselves even if we had thought of it. We did not really monitor the interest, but in early 2008 we noticed the clip was becoming more popular. It was being sent around the world as one of those send this on to someone you love e-mails, complete with Whitney Houston's version of the highly emotive I Will Always Love You as the backing track. The hits on YouTube began to climb into the millions, and other sites opened. We occasionally read the comments but felt like voyeurs into our own lives. Most people found the clip extremely moving and comments were very positive, which is apparently uncommon, and this was often remarked on by other commentators. It was a very special experience that we now all shared.

The Internet is unregulated territory, and quite a lot of the information about Christian and us was incorrect, particularly the suggestion that we were in danger when we went back to see Christian. George had now known Christian for a year, and he was confident Christian would recognize us and greet us, although he admitted later that he did not expect such an exuberant display of affection.

Then the American television host Ellen De-Generes showed the clip on her program and invited John and Virginia McKenna to appear. They were unavailable, but the showing of the reunion clip saw the hits on the site climb to three million and led to many other international television networks broadcasting it. Christian had become world news, and we stopped counting as the hits reached forty-four million, and the sites expanded to over eight hundred. Hollywood producers began to call. Funny spoofs and parodies have since been posted, and another unknown person joined Christian to Facebook, and he now has many friends.