Because four books preceded it, I was surprised that beginning the project eventually resulting in the 2022, BRINGING BACK THE LIONS: International Hunters, Local Tribespeople, and the Miraculous Rescue of a Doomed Ecosystem in Mozambique was so daunting. In fact, had it not been for encouragement from my wife, Frances, I might still be ‘stuck’. That’s a bad place for a writer, or anyone for that matter. For those considering a similar book – one filled with facts, but also wonderful stories – consider Frances’ guidance. “Just look through the photographs and remember the events.” This of course presupposed that we kept a detailed photographic diary; we did. Sitting down at my computer, I began scanning the many photos, reliving the adventures, the excitement, the highs, and the lows, of living and hunting within Zambeze Delta Safaris’ Coutada 11. The smells, sounds, people, birds, insects, plants, and game invaded my sensory space, and without too much delay, my two-fingered typing began.
Instead of beginning with a panic attack and its associated hyperventilation, I remembered Frances’ wise counsel, when I began my latest foray into book writing. I opened up an external hard drive filled with photographic records of adventures in hunting, and their associated conservation, and community outreach events. Unlike Lions, this book encapsulated five years of people, places and the associated flora and fauna. The goal involved bringing the reader along when a leopard sawed as it passed by a blind, and a rickety machan swayed in the wind blowing through a dry tropical forest. With the advantage of many years, it would also extend across great stretches of geography – from the Yucatán peninsula to Sweden, from remote British Columbia to southern England, and much more. The result of the years and geography was BRINGING BACK THE WILD – Stories From Revitalized Ecosystems Around the World and How Sport Hunting Supports Them.
Being the scientist-nerd, I am there are forays into the lives of animals and plants in this new book. Yet those diversions have a goal of showing the natural beauty retained by the passion of hunters. Likewise, windows into the many rooms occupied by hunter-directed (and financed) community outreach projects open within the stories relating the varied hunting adventures. In fact, the inclusion of descriptions of the recovery and sustaining of both nature and human societies is why my friend and agent, B.G. Dilworth chose the title he did. “This book is an extension, but at the same time much more extensive in time and space, than Bringing Back the Lions,” he told me. “So, let’s call it Bringing Back the Wild.” It is a perfect title, especially since I did not think it up.
Though I truly enjoy the act of storytelling involved in constructing a book, I can’t help but agree with Winston Churchill’s assessment of the process: “Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public.”
BRINGING BACK THE WILD – Stories From Revitalized Ecosystems Around the World And How Sport Hunting Supports Them is available (using the link) on Mike’s website, and also from Amazon and other booksellers.
