Travel World guide

This book is the rousing and interesting story of writer Robert Ruark’s two month Safari into the wilds of Africa. This was done in the 1950′s and he was accompanied by his wife who also hunted by his side. Gritty and often frightening descriptions of the chase and the kill are acompanied by astute observations on the Africa of that time. He had strong opinions of many of the African tribes. Some he praised highly and others he condemned and he explains why. If you are wrapped in the fog of political correctness don’t bother to read this. If you want an unvarnished, honest, very interesting tale, by all means, buy this outstanding book.

I was lucky enough to be given a copy of this book way back in 1983 when I was but 11 years old. The circumstances in which I was given this book was by a family friend on the first night after arriving at our camp on the border of Botswana and Zimbabwe – I was in the African bush on a big game hunt for the first time in my life! On that trip the men of our group had permits for big game of every kind – including Cape Buff which we took two of in a spectacular afternoon. We also took Zebra and many other animals legally permitted during this time and I myself took down a Steinbuck from some distance off the back of a Land Rover with a .270 cal rifle – which we promptly ate that very evening!

Reading this book again just recently reminds me of what it is like to hunt in the African scrub, it was not written so long before I was hunting there and my friend John who gave this young neophyte hunter his first taste of hunting as well as a blood curdling read each night before I slept, will never be forgot. This is a thrilling read, particularly the chapter on Lion; and while we all came out unscathed the dangers on a big hunt are very real – we were never without loaded weapons when on foot. I was lucky to escape serious peril after a Hyaena entered my open hut whilst I slept one evening and wandered out again without interest.

Reading the visceral tales of Capstick brings back memories of that giant African blood red sun each dawn – it’s a country that gets in your blood and has spilled it’s fair share also. His superb writing and descriptions are no exagerration!

I purchased this any several more for my husband. He loves to read and to be informed on many different things. This coming year the oportunity came up for him to go to Africa to hunt. As he is an avid hunter and hunts all over this continent each year he jumped at the oportunity. Now part of his prep he is reading about the great safaries of the past,Ruark Hemingway Roosevelt Botington etc. We really enjoyed this book as he wrote about all aspects of the trip with very little editing. I t was about bravery in foreign country but also about his humility at the very differnt struggles of the people and thier cultures. I think everyone who reads this will be entertained in thier own way and will take something away from this that they will never forget. Happy reading and remember read some of the books on the back shelves you may just find a treasure.

Robert Ruark’s chronicle of his African safari in the 1950s. This is good reading for both outdoor buffs and readers of a more literary type. Ruark avoids the pitfall of turning his book into an extended article for “Field and Stream.” Aside from the details of the big-game hunt, he sprinkles his narrative with recollections of his WWII combat experience, musings on the literary world of New York, books, movies about Africa, and life in America. The focal point of the book is the daily experience of fighting the African environment in the pursuit of the elusive prey. The descriptions of the wildlife are thrilling as the hunting party tracks across the primeval plains. Ruark gives full attention to the discomforts of safari life and the doubtful sanity of those who submit themselves to this type of “recreation.” The killing is graphically described and not for the squeamish. Animal rights activists should steer clear of this book.

Ruark has great fun describing himself as an Ernest Hemingway “wannabe.” Comparisons to Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa” are inevitable. Ruark is more self-deprecating than Ernest Hemingway, and can see the outrageous humor of it all. The white hunter guide, Harry Selby, falls short of the Allan Quartermain ideal. Selby is afraid of snakes and scorpions, and manages to get the safari lost at least once. Just as Hemingway, Ruark takes his wife, Jenny, along on safari. She handles the discomforts very well, and doesn’t wimp out.

This book won’t be studied a 100 years from now in American Lit. classes, but it’s diverting reading. It recalls the macho standards of a different era. Ruark’s reputation has faded since his heyday in the ’50s and early ’60s. For those who remember, this book is an interesting footnote to his literary career.

“Horn Of The Hunter” is one of the best stories about African hunting and wildlife that has ever been penned. (My Opinion) Robert Ruark may have written between the two era’s of Hemingway and Capstick, but when it comes to writing about Africa he took a backseat to neither of them and if you have read my other reviews you know that I have nothing but praise for them both.

Ruark takes us on safari with him and his wife Virginia. The copyright is 1952 and though I couldn’t find a definite time for the safari it was during the post WW II era. It is reasonable to assume that it would have been a short time prior to the copyright. He describes in great detail the African wilderness and wildlife along with the discomforts of insect bites and muddy river bottoms. Traveling through the Tanganyika wilderness in a Land Rover called Jessica with a professional hunter named Harry Selby, Ruark takes us with him on a grand adventure.

Unlike many prominent writers Ruark not only tells of his successes, but his failures as well. Throughout the text Selby compares Ruark’s marksmanship with a lady client named Harriet Maytag and Ruark’s responses to his comments add depth and humor to the text. There are some spectacular long range shots taken, but there are also some clean misses at both long and short range. He admits his fear of Cape Buffalo and tells us of his love for wing shooting. He talks of Selby who is as sqeamish with snakes as a teenage girl, but is the living portrait of abosolute courage when following up wounded and dangerous animals.

Ruark’s delightful humor is on nearly every page as he describes various bits of unorthodox lore. Such as painting a juvinile baboon with flourescent paint to frighten off the band or Selby’s advice to him to survive a buffalo stampede by shooting one of them and climbing on top of it to avoid being trampled.

When I finished reading this story I was as sad to see it end as Ruark was to leave Africa.

All in all this is a readers delight and will be a treasured gem in any hunters library.

This book is a good read for people who can tolerate some blood and gore. Scenes of animals killing people and people killing animals have been very graphically described. At times you cannot agree with the author when he tries to justify the killing of animals just for kicks and to collect trophies. I have never set foot in a jungle, so I cannot be a judge about such matters, but I sometimes felt that the author is bluffing.

Not for the faint of heart. Exciting, scary and a bit gory.

Peter Capstick was capable of capturing the spirit and danger of the hunt like no other author in recent history.

I read “Death in the Long Grass” in the late 1970′s when it first came out. I was hooked on Capstick immediately and have read many of his subsequent works, but I still think that this one is the best.

In my opinion Capstick was the first writer since Hemingway to really capture the “feel” of the African bush and the danger of the hunt.

Capstick was the first writer in many years to truly capture the wilderness and to help the uninitiated understand the heart and courage of the hunter. Sadly he is no longer with us and his gritty descriptions of the African wilderness and wildlife will be missed by all who have been unable to go to Africa, but have felt that they were a part of it through his writings.

He writes of an era that is quickly passing, which future generations may experience only through writings such as his.

I would recommend this work highly to anyone who is interested in the dark continent, dangerous game, or hunting in general. In my opinion it is the best of Capstick.

Capstick invokes the feeling of sitting around the campfire listening to stories. He tells a story the way way Monet painted, full of color and brilliance. His stories make you feel the sun beating down on you,and hear the tiny rustle of the long grass that means a charge. When you read his book(s) your not going to feel like you reading, you’ll feel like your there. No one has ever written better on hunting in Africa, not Ruark or Hemingway, I know I have a 250 volume collection of African hunting books dating from 1890 to 1999. Trust me buy this book for anyone who hunts or has thought of hunting, you will not regret it. How good is this book? I’ve had 5 copies of it, the 1st 2 paperbacks were read till they fell apart.

Ruark was known as “the poor man’s Ernest Hemingway”. In “Horn of the Hunter”, his prose and eloquent introspection out does Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa”.

After reading several reviews on this famous book and much wait when I finally got this book, truly I was a little bit disappointed during reading. I had in my mind something superior than Hemingway and Capstick’s works. Before this I read his later book ‘Use Enough Gun’ which I think is better than this one. However, when I finished, it was added in my list of to-be-re-read books. These are the books which leave an impression on you, which take you in the atmosphere of theirs and you remember the good taste of the book as of very fine things in the life.

Now I would say that Hemingway is a kind of more powerful and more hunter on this safari stuff, in the “Green Hills of Africa”. His white hunter Philip Percival is not as much narrated as Herry Selby of Ruark’s. Interstingly Selby is one of the pupil of Percival as Ruark is inspired by Hemingway.

I think that the Ruark has the edge of being more comic and funny. His humouress narration of his own acts and that of his companions are different then many hero-type hunters-authors, who always succeed in every crisis. His desire to shoot a Greater Kudu trophy and story of fair chase and the end of chase….is a classic picture of true hunting attitude. He was not a rifle shooter before this safari as opposed to Hemingway who was a serious hunter. One of the finest parts in this book is the episode of sand grouse shooting and Ruark’s pride on his expertise in bird shooting over his white hunter Selby, who used to surprise Ruark in rifle shooting.

Collectively a very fine book on the African safari hunting in the golden era of long safaris.

Well written book, maybe a little slow to start with but gets better as time goes on. Takes you back to a different era. The pictures really show the time difference. Great story of a hunter’s first hunt in Africa, with a professional hunter icon.

There was an Africa before this one. Before the continent was torn apart by war, AIDS and poaching. Before elephants and other exotic species were slaughtered to the point of endangerment. Before Africa was one big, hopeless charity case in the sense of both it’s wildlife and it’s people there was Peter Capstick’s Africa. While reading this book let go of what you think you know about endangered species on that continent and let go of your judgement about hunting there. Because otherwise you’re really missing out.

Before that old Africa finally gave up the ghost, there were people having the most incredible lives and experiences hunting there. People like Peter Hathaway Capstick. That’s what this book is really about. True, high adventure in a world that has largely disappeared. Embrace the reality of the time in which lions really did have to be killed regularly because they were honestly eating innocent people. There was a time in which far too many elephants had been concentrated into small regions and they were wiping out people’s crops and causing starvation. There was an experience of hunting such creatures down at great personal risk and destroying them. Once you accept that this was the reality of that time, I promise that you will find this riveting.

Capstick is an excellent writer who will never once bore you. There will not be one single page in this entire book that you will want to flip past. If you have the remotest interest in hunting or in true, high adventure then I implore you to pick up this book and read it.

I thought this was a good book with several memorable parts. In reading this I gained some respect for the people who hunt animals in Africa. Even if you are walking around with a fully loaded weapon it is only a matter of time before you die or are horribly injured no matter how careful you are.

It was interesting to read about the type of Big Game hunting that Capstick describes but I think thirty years later the world is a much different place (this book was written in 1978). I do think it must have been quite an adventure to have hunted in Africa anytime in the last two centuries. So yes the stories Capstick tells are great & he would be a great person to sit back & have a few drinks with while he rattled off endless great stories.

What I didn’t like about the book was Capstick is someone who likes to kill animals for the thrill of it. He talks in the book about how he has personally killed over 800 elephants often wiping out entire family groups of up to 16 at a time. He justified it by saying he was hired to do the cropping & he was saving the environment… He also said he didn’t really like doing that part. But I think if you didn’t really like doing that you might stop after 2 or 3 … not 800. That’s sad. He’s shot over 1,000 Cape Buffalo & countless other animals – so it is a good thing for the African wildlife that he started his hunting career closer to 30 years old. For sure he wasn’t just hunting to feed himself.

This book was written in the 70′s & it is clear that since that time things have changed as many of the animals he hunted are now endangered due to poaching & over-hunting.

So I thought he tells a great story & has been in some incredibly dangerous situations. The book is worth reading. A better book I would recommend would be Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett. He usually hunted alone (unlike Capstick), described situations beautifully & didn’t kill animals just for the sake of killing.

This book is wonderful. Peter Hathaway Capstick had a real knack for putting the reader right there in the tall grass, feeling the heat and the fear of an African hunt. His description of a charging lion put the fear of God in me, that’s for sure. Also, his writing style is full of self-depreciating humor and honesty. He had a real way with words and his books are all classics in the field. If you have ever wanted to go on a safari, read this book. It is refreshing to read his descriptions of hunting with no apologies. Consider the way he expresses his love of dangerous game hunting: “That is man against himself, the last and purest of the challenges that made us men, not animals.” Either that rings true or it doesn’t.

I returned from Namibia, Botswana & Zimbabwe in September where we went on 19 game drives seeing a large number of animals in their natural habitat. We were able to get close to many of the animals in the Land Rover and get great pictures. However, Death in the Long Grass paints a different picture of the animals we saw detailing how dangerous each of the animals are and how careful one needs to be. It is a wonderful book about the behavior of the animals and the reasons they are dangerous. I would not have slept as soundly at night as I did had I known the dangers of some of the animals.

It is a book that is gory at times but anyone who will have exposure to any of these animals should know of the dangers Capstick talks about.

If you’ve ever dreamed of going on a safari in Africa, but don’t have the money or the gumption, this is about as close as you’ll come to the real thing. I’ve read a few books about safaris, hunting in Africa, etc. (like Peter Capstick), but this is what I always imagined it would really be like. If you’ve stumbled upon this book (and review) by accident and don’t know who Robert Ruark was, you’re in for a treat. Ruark was a journalist, author, and big game hunter who wrote from the late 40s until his death in the mid 60s. He was hugely popular during his lifetime, but now has been almost totally forgotten. I stumbled upon one of his books a few years ago (the collection of short stories by McIntosh), and since then I’ve snarf every Ruark book I could find. This book contains Ruark’s own tale of his first safari in Africa in the early 1950s and is an incredibly entertaining and detailed account of safaris. Early on Ruark is keenly concerned about `living up’ to the expectations of his PH (Harry Selby) and the retinue of African gun bearers, cooks, skinners, and camp followers. He doesn’t want to show any weakness, fear, or inability to hit the target with his gun. As the safari progress and Ruark proves himself a worthy hunting companion, the tale turns into a shared adventure with his PH and other hunting comrades as they stalk a variety of game throughtout East Africa. It is clear from Ruark’s writing that a safari (at least in the 50s) was a physically and emotionally grueling experience. The heat in the day, the cold in the night, the swamps, the river crossings, the bugs, the snakes, the waiting, the hours of stalking over rough terrain, the long rides in the Land Rover all for a few minutes of excitement (and occasionally sheer terror). The style of this book is very conversational, Ruark discusses the regular comings and goings of the safari, but he talks about a wide range of other topics including his experiences in WWII in the merchant marine, Hollywood safari movies, the habits of various game animals in Africa, a bit about the diverse natives, and a host of other topics. It really is as if you are sitting with Ruark at the end of a hard day hunting enjoying a cocktail around the campfire. If you’ve read Ruark before, this isn’t his best, but still a terrific read, and worth spending a few extra bucks for the hardback. For anyone interested in safari hunting or safari literature, this is a must own/must read.

Read this book if you want to experience the thrills and dangers of the hunt. Capstick’s descriptions really sends a chill down your spine. Punctuated with a humor typical of him, it is a great read. sadly it does not tell the reader how the hunt is accompalished.. stalking the prey, reading the signs along the way and all that. There are just mentions that the gun bearer finds it out for him.. also the African bush lifestyle and culture have not been described though the natives are the biggest casulties of the wildlife.

Inspite of all these drawbacks the book is still a good read as the author has tons of experience as a safari pro. Recommend chapter on the lions which is a treat to read.

I have just ordered a copy of Robert Ruark’s popular book. I remember wayback in 1957, I read this book in paperback form…and I liked it. Since moving to Canada, I didn’t bring this book with me. So it is exciting to be able to read this book again soon. I had also read another excellent book by Robert Ruark, entitled: SOMETHING OF VALUE.
This is an excellent book on the Mau Mau tribal uprising in East Africa during the British colonial era. Then I also read another good book called UHURU, meaning indepedence in the African language.
About this HORN OF THE HUNTER, going after big game in Africa is a thing of the past now and gone too are the days of the so-called White Hunters…after ivory and rhino horns mainly. I wish to thank the publisher and Amazon.com for bring this most exciting book back for discriminate readers, such as myself…! All the best for now. Cheers!

Mr Capstick employed a writing style that fuels your imagination to the extent you can virtually visualise the scene he has created on paper, with a blend of humour that could ordinarily seem inconsistent with the seriousness of certain situations. Mr Capsticks’ writings did (in my opinion) re-vitalise the african hunt to a new generation of outdoors-people, particularly so with this title.

I had heard alot about this book for years and finally got around to reading it. If you enjoy high quality adventure and hunting writing, it truly does not come better than this.
Ruark takes the reader along on his (and his wife’s) first African safari and makes us feel the sights, sounds, smells, adventure, boredoom, fatigue, terror etc. that he experiences as if we were there. His writing is at times witty and always interesting. A fascinating portrait of an era long gone. A great read.

As close to going on Safari as a book can bring you. Everything is here … the stalking, the terror, the kills, the planning, the camaraderie, and the campfires in the evening. You’ll also get a pretty good education on the different species and their unique styles of hunting you! The chapter hunting on lions, and the one on leopards will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. This is high-adventure hunting at it’s best.

Read this and you’ll be hooked on Peter Capstick and Africa.

“Death in the Long Grass” gives you an exquisite look into African big game hunting. It is not just a book for hunters though; it is a book that will entertain and keep everyone interested. The author, a professional hunter, takes you right along with him. It will open your eyes to the many man-eating animals that endanger the lives of Africans every day. From a lion that stepped on top of one person to reach another to crocodiles that wait for women to get water at the river’s edge, you will never look at Africa the same.

Read the first paragraph of this book and you will know that you are reading some of the finest and most thrilling writing on the subject of big game hunting in Africa by someone truly gifted. I must have read this book at least half a dozen times and cannot help but be affected by the masterful descriptions and story telling prowess of Peter H. Capstick. Having read all of Capstick’s wonderful books, if I were to pick one as the very best, this would likely be it.

Wonderful reading about hunting in Africa. The author kept my attention all the way through.

I have read a few books by Robert Ruark (Old Man books) and enjoyed them greatly. Horn of the Hunter is no different..although it takes you to a whole new world – an African Safari many years ago. Bottom line- Ruark is a great writer, and he does an excellent job describing his many adventures hunting in Africa during this safari. His writing reminds me a lot of Teddy Roosevelt’s hunting books – which are also excellent. In several sections of the book, Ruark does a masterful job trying to figure out why he enjoys hunting, and what makes an African safari so special. The sketches and photos included in the book, also helped paint a complete picture of this adventure – to include how his spouse dealt with living in the bush for so long.

My only complaint with the book is that it gets a little long winded at times when describing all the details about specific hunts – makes you think the safari lasted a lot longer than it actually did.If you enjoy hunting books, or other works by Robert Ruark, then you will really enjoy Horn of the Hunter – well worth reading.

This book is nearly 300 pages long, but I finished it in an evening of reading, and when I did, I wished there had been another 300 pages to go. “Death in the Long Grass” is about the author’s (Peter Hathaway Capstick) experience as a white hunter in Africa, and his close encounters with the various creatures there that either wanted to eat, trample, gore, or bite him and his associates.

This is not an informational guide about either hunting or Africa. The book’s sole intent is to capture your attention with fascinating, hair-raising stories of Capstick’s own close calls with the wildlife of Africa as well as his recounting of some other tales where the wildlife got the best of man.

The stories are utterly captivating. They would be interesting to read no matter who was telling them. But Capstick knows how to write by weaving his own interesting experiences in with other tales he has either heard or read about. He also has a wicked, morbid sense of humor that fits well with the subject matter of the book.

I enjoyed this book. Ruark honestly describes his fear as he faces the dangerous game animals of 1950s east Africa. If you are a hunter you will appreciate this book. If you are not a hunter and don’t have a special interest in East Africa then this book will likely hold little appeal for you.

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I thorough enjoyed “Death…” but believe few readers would possess enough background information to strongly recommend the book. If you’ve read of hunting mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth century Africa, or been a shooter on safari, and stood down or ever imagined standing down the charge of a great tusker or black manned man-eater; well, then “Death…” is for you.
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Ruarke is rightfully called the master of outdoor writing. This is a fabulously written story of his first safari in Kenya and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). It is a must read for anyone who enjoys outdoor literature, hunting stories, or Africa.

After reading Old Man and the Boy, and The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older, both of which are some of the greatest outdoor literature ever printed, I must say that Horn of the Hunter made me stop and really think about Ruark as I first started on the book. This is my first read of his outside of the Old Man and Boy series, so I really don’t know what I was expecting, but this was not it. After settling into the story and getting over the fact that this is who the author is….which is far from a wet behind the ears youngster learning back woods knowledge in South Carolina, I found that the story became better and better with every chapter, and I soon found myself completly absorbed in the story line. This is a book that Ruark wrote for himself, but I dare say that all enjoy outdoor pursuits will greatly apprechiate it as well. It is an honest look into the earlier Safaris, which I dare say is long gone and no longer avaliable in todays world. Great read, but be prepared for something a bit different if your looking for another colorful Old Man story.

The book is ok but really not worth its price. It has short stories which get boring after a while. I found Jim Corbett’s stories far more interesting and fun to read. But overall this book does give some insight into african wild life. I think the author is very arrogant and pompous. He has no concern for the native people. He is a complete contrast of Jim Corbett.

I enjoyed it – - the great thing is that each of the chapters can be read in about half an hour – - about my limit before falling asleep each night. The tales of lions and their power is truly remarkable. Mr. Capstick is a great story teller, and his stories are interesting enough and although gory, clean enough, for thrill-seeking readers of all ages. It’s also interesting to hear the perspective of someone who believes in conservation yet rejects categorically the view about hunting and animal preservation that we see every night on animal shows on TV. It’s thought provoking and makes me think that someday I might look nice in a leopard skin coat . . . (or not)

On the downside, Mr. Capstick’s humor wears a bit thin sometimes, and for that I dock him at least half a star. And the book is a bit pricey for what you get. I enjoyed what I have read of Jim Corbett more than Mr. Capstick’s book.

There are adventure stories written by writers who were occasional adventurers (Conrad, Ruark, Hemingway), and there are adventure stories written by those who were only writers (Orwell, a million others,) and then there are a tiny number of adventure stories written by professional adventurers who also *luckily* happen to be brilliant writers. Peter Hathaway Capstick is the chief of this tribe, which includes John Taylor and a couple of others. This is a general review of all his writing, and so I won’t get too specific, but it isn’t a stretch at all to say that this is the finest, most exciting, most frightening, most eloquent writing ever done on the hunting experience, on hunting in Africa, and perhaps on what happens at that moment when man “goes back on the menu” after being off of it for a measley thousand years or so.

Capstick was a stock broker turned hunting organizer turned (through a curcuitous route) to being a PH or professional hunter in Africa, and then had the skill and the will to set it all down. I have never had more riveting reading experiences than when he tells of having to shoot a big bull elephant (driven mad drunk after eating morula fruit) in bush so thick that he was actually 5 feet from the elephant before he saw it. Or of his friend Corporal Katwindi, the African tribesman who was killed trying to save his life. Or of stalking a black mamba that had killed a boy. This particular story includes the three most chilling words I’ve read in a long time: as he comes around a bend in the river bank, he sees the dead child (bitten on the lower lip) horribly swollen and disfigured, his face contorted in agony from the mamba bite. “Oh my, yes.” Capstick says, and nothing else need be said. He was there, at that point where the line between life and death gets so horribly thin and transparent, and he’s able to come back from it and tell it to you so that you feel the same goose flesh he felt, the same clutching fear, the same doubt about your courage, the same desire to run screaming back to your office job.

You’ll laugh, too. “There may be something more exciting than lion hunting, but I don’t have her phone number any more.” Or the story of the African camp steward who had slavishly dedicated himself to learning English to impress the clients, (by overhearing phrases and memorizing their meanings) and while wearing a crisp starched uniform, snaps to a British salute in front of the distinguished safari couple and tells the lady “Tea is ready, darling.” His ability to find, and bring back, wonderful humor from gruelling experiences, like when his skin basically rotted off his feet during the rainy season, will not soon be forgotten.

One of the most memorable aspects of his writing is his deep respect and affection for the African natives that he admired so much, and the few that he was proud to call his friends. He is quick to point out that any perceived inadequacies on their part are strictly cultural, not racial, and he was in awe of their abilities in their world. One old man could not, for the life of him, to save his soul, be taught how to flick a disposable cigarette lighter so that it would light. The little thumb roll that we do without thinking completely evaded him. His hands just wouldn’t do it, couldn’t do it. So he stuck it in his ear hole. This same man could smell elephants miles away and could track game over bare rock, could look at a broken leaf and tell what animal did it and when, leaving Capstick in awe. As impossible as the lighter was to him, this incredible oneness with the natural world was ultimately impossible for Capstick, and for us all.

That’s enough for now. If you are reading this review, you probably already have one or more of PHC’s books. But if, on the off chance, you don’t, then do yourself a favor and get as many as you can, and I dare you to try to put them down. They are that good. Better literature than Hemingway? Probably not. Probably not as profound as Ruark. But he has them all trumped when your knuckles are white with fear, and beads of sweat pop out on your brow, and you try to remember…did I chamber one, or not? And there’s a soft crunch in the leaves ahead, and then we’re back to what is most elemental: predator and prey, and which of us is which is entirely up for grabs.

Thanks, Peter. Gone but not forgotten.

National Geographic this one isn’t, however, it reads well. Think about it… Africa. The elements, the animals, the insects the basic survival skills needed to endure such hunts is far above what many may think. This books gives you the insight from an experienced bushman.

Think about this… if you fell dead (from sheer exhaustion lets say) within minutes… yes MINUTES, the vultures would be upon your carcass and within an hour (between the scavangers) one would be completely devoured with the exception of bone clean up by other carrion eaters through out the rest of the day. MINUTES… it’s that kind of place

i thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on lions and snakes , while elephant and leopard were a bit extravagant and lofty . At times it Appeared capstick was trigger happy and I couldn’t help feeling for the animals . Sounded very exaggerated at times . But why kill antelopes and elephants when they are so harmless and non interfering .
the written script was a bit jargonic and slang difficult to comprehend at times , I would prefer Kenneth Anderson books any time .
All in all the death in the long grass was full of mixed feelings.

you know how they say”anticipation is sweeter than the possession” thats what happened with me.Before buying this book I’have read the other reviwes,with no disrespect to other readers, but I think they have over done it a little.I am a long time big game hunter,what I found what is missing in this book is a thru heart of an hunter. The horn was there, but not the hunter. After reading the book, I remember more of the memsaabs hair care than the hunting adventures.I felt ,for Mr Ruark the shooting part of the safari was the most booring bit.Well that is his styl and I respect him
I just wanted to share my thoughts with rest of my bwana brothers.Still a good reading.Especially to know the great character of Mr. Selby.

One of the finest books ever written on Hunting period. Ruark odes Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa hands down. In this book we follow a man and his wife from New York’s high life to the backwoods African bush. We discover what a buffalo really looks like, and how you feel when he looks at you! We discover fear, anxiety, restlessness, pride, truimph, and in the end respect and joy. A very highly recommended book.

Peter H. Capstick was an able writer whose style really grew on me. In a few cases, he described certain detailed events, such as attacks by lions, that were not actually witnessed by anyone who survived, but deduced from evidence at the scene. Thus he may have used some literary license in his re-creations, but that is very effective in helping tell the story. Capstick was mostly objective but had certainly formed some strong opinions about animals and their behavior (people too).

Peter Hathaway Capstick ranks among the finest story tellers in the world today. His tales of hunting dangerous African game in “Death in the Long Grass” is riveting. His anecdotes portray in vivid detail the danger, fear, and humor in hunting big game in the African bush. Read this book and you will never look at a leopard the same again, or any other big game species in Africa for that matter. Capstick’s respect for the animals he hunted and for the African people is quite apparent. “Bravo old boy!”