Wild life
Laikipia As the train pulled into Victoria my wife Claire, back home on the farm in Kenya, revealed that a…
Things fall apart
Civil war is breaking out in Ethiopia
Wild life
Exmoor I am heading to Exmoor for the first time since I was last there in 1977 — and as…
Wild life
Bexhill-on-Sea My Aunt Beryl taught me to love books and paintings. When I’m at a loose end in London, lonely,…
Wild life
Kenya I stood under huge skies in the open country of our farm in northern Kenya and, after months of…
Wild life
London Simon, proprietor of the sex shop opposite our Covid-19 testing centre in Soho, insisted on popping a pack…
Wild life
As we all know by now, the pandemic distorts time like a concertina. Life before March is a world that…
Wild life
I used to live in Mogadishu for months at a time, cooped up in compounds behind fortified walls. Venturing on…
Year of the locust
Another plague is stalking Africa
Wild life
I keep thinking what I’ll do when we regain our liberty — and I picture that beer at the end…
Mal d’Afrique
Virus deaths may not be the greatest challenge ahead
Wild life
Laikipia The sweetest sound to me now is the dawn chorus of birdsong at home on the farm. I lay…
Wild life
Africa ‘Ah, Africa,’ the French scientist sighed contentedly. This was 1995 and all around us was an Ebola epidemic…
Wild life
Death and failure are more integral to farming than any other experience that I’ve witnessed in my life. Some things…
My narrow escape from a burning aircraft
Addis Ababa airport This morning I caught a connecting flight via Addis Ababa’s Bole airport. For me this place…
Will Boris Johnson stand up for the white farmers in Zimbabwe?
Laikipia After a year of peace and plentiful rain, my farm in Kenya is fantastic. Peace, rain — leave…
![Tiny Rowland, 1991 [Business Collection/Shutterstock]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2Novwildlife.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
The man with the inside story on Tiny Rowland
Kenya At his house on Kenya’s coast our neighbour Paul Spicer kept a photograph of himself as quite a…
Britain is following in the footsteps of Africa’s former failed states
Kenya ‘In the past months the people of Uganda have been following with sorrow the alarming economic crisis befalling…
The astonishing resilience of my beach paradise
Malindi I could measure my whole life in the summers I’ve spent on the beach in front of our…
My boy Rider’s circumcision ceremony brings back memories of my childhood in Samburu
Laikipia All across the north the ritual bulls have already been slaughtered. I am waiting for the invitation from…
How an orphaned baby kudu gave solace to my grieving friend
Laikipia, Kenya On 5 April this year, my neighbour Torrie’s sister Vicki died during an operation in a Nairobi…
The true saviours of African wildlife
Laikipia, Kenya A cheetah perched in the front seat of your gold-plated Lamborghini. Stick that on Instagram in Saudi…
Why we should listen to elephants
Laikipia, Kenya ‘An elephant has fallen over,’ said the man running up to me. My first thought was that…
My time in Somalia with Michael Meacher, Tony Benn’s ‘vicar on earth’
East Africa The late Michael Meacher represented almost everything I loathe in a politician. Before his death in 2015,…
For now, here in Laikipia we have the only population of black panthers in the world
Laikipia A female black panther was recently photographed at our neighbours’ place. Exactly like Kipling’s Bagheera, she was ‘inky…
