General Adult. When I was nineteen, after two years in a job that was going nowhere, I bought a ticket and set off for Africa. Sydney native Allison then found himself penniless and gladly took an offer to tend the bar at a game camp in southern Africa. While carrying the beer for a firelight dinner in the bush, he was charged by two lionsand didnt run. Only food runs, as hed been told, and the pride he felt when the lions left him alone was his first intimation that he was on the right career path. After learning to drive a Land Rover (and causing the renaming of One Tree Plain to No Tree Plain), fighting a war against an invasion of mice (and mistaking a rustling elephant for just more mice), and keeping monkeys away from his tent with a stuffed toy leopard, he became an experienced guide. He deals with bird nerds (and discovers that he too is a birder), the recalcitrant Land Rovers (including two he drowned), the fact of his race (the other guides were all local men), and finally the touristsseveral members of the British royal family (with whom the guides played strip poker), the California difficult Torture Twins, the Ya-Ya Germans, and finally his friend, Nick, whose aplomb he managed to shake with a visit to feeding cheetahs. Allisons infectious enthusiasm for both the African bush and his job showing its wonders to tourists is readily apparent, making for a fast and very entertaining read. Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.