This title is now out of print.
It is not uncommon to meet an African PH who has a few battle scars from an encounter with the odd leopard or buffalo. But how often do you meet one who was tossed into the air by a black rhino while a friend took photos? If that same PH lost his left eye in another hunting incident, then you know you have met Terry Mathews. (The photos of the rhino encounter, and a drawing of the same incident by renowned wildlife artist Bob Kuhn, are in this book, by the way.)
Mathews started his career as a surveyor, but this was interrupted first by WW II and then the Mau Mau Emergency, during which he served as a policeman. When that situation settled down, he got married and began looking for a better job. There was money in wildlife, so after qualifying as a professional hunter in 1957, he conducted both hunting and photographic safaris. His guests came from all walks of life and were mostly from the United States, where his services became much sought after by many well-known people such as Edgar Bergen, William Holden, Stewart Granger and Bing Crosby. Mathews along with Kermit Roosevelt and his two sons, Kermit Jr. and Jonathan, tried to retrace Theodore Roosevelt's famous safari. This life not only allowed him to travel throughout East Africa but enabled him, together with his wife Jean, to visit their many friends in other parts of the world.
After he lost his eye he gave up hunting but continued conducting photo safaris and also began to market his bronze sculptures, which up until then had been a hobby.
After his interlude with a rhino, which came close to terminating his career, the medical profession endeavored without success for some eighteen years to repair his badly broken leg. At last he was able to have his leg fixed in London, and while there, he faced a very long recuperation and physiotherapy session, so he acquired a laptop and started writing this book. So we have a cankerous rhino to thank for this interesting story.
