FOR THE HONOUR OF A HUNTER… TROPHY ROOM BOOKS 1995. Signed limited edition, number 613 of 1000. Autobiography of one of the breed of “hard safari men” whose lives are full of changes and charges, of a man who has lived a prime life where no two weeks are ever the same. Through forest and plain, scorching sun and rain, Tony led one safari after another, both for paying hunting clients as well as while cropping or hunting with other professionals. Numerous times, Tony has been honored by his East African professional hunting colleagues. Whether crawling through the forest trying to see the sun reflected on a glimpse of tusk, or sitting around the campfire at the end of the day hoping he might pass as gamely as the elephant whose life he has just claimed, Tony’s stories are told in a sprightly, vivid fashion which brings them all to life. For three years he was a Game Warden and then in 1964, at the request of John Lawrence then President of the East African Professional Hunters’ Association, Tony joined that organization and also started working for White Hunters Limited. Thus began a big game hunting career which lasted for over thirty years. Tony also had the opportunity to work with Ian Parker and spent much time cropping in then game-rich Uganda. Those were the days of longer, more adventurous safaris -when hunters could roam far from fixed camps in specified concessions. “Off among the tusks, they take their lives, sometimes for months on end” was an apt way to describe the golden era of safari hunting. Those were the days that one well known writer called genuine stuff. As Tony relates, not only was every hunt different, but much of the excitement was in the lengthy hunting, in the tracking, in the expectation of finding that magical tusker with ivory of 150 pounds a side, of finding that monster with your own name written all over it. The high hopes, even on days when one worked hard but shot nothing, the thrills, satisfaction, and anticipation of the future days, weeks and months, are so well described in this book that They stand up well when compared to the classics. Tony Seth-Smith served on the board of the EAPHA for many years and was also a founding member of the International Professional Hunters’ Association. He has hunted extensively throughout Kenya and Uganda, as well as in Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Zambia and Botswana and has seen much of the unforgiving country in which Africa’s game is found. With the wit and wisdom of comparative hindsight Tony looks at the African hunts that were, that should have been, that might have been, and that we all hope will be again. Reading through the exciting, fascinating stories which fill up this delightful book, is like looking at an Africa “as Africa should be” or at least as we wish it could be again. Trophy Room Books is pleased to publish this book which is equally a piece of history and a hunting book. As Tony says, The day I can no longer hear a lion roaring in Africa is the day I wish to leave. 26 x 18 cm. Xvi + 303 pp. Very good + condition. Dust jacket faded on the spine and with a very slight, almost imperceptible, damp stain along the bottom edge around the foot of the spine. Book itself unmarked and as new. Get images that make Supersized seem small.
