Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison

His affection for these wild and dangerous animals and his fascination with, and respect for, their often extraordinary behaviour is completely genuine, deep and infectious. From close encounters with hungry lions, cranky elephants and over-protective honey badgers, there's not much in the African bush that Peter hasn't seen, done or been chased by. He's had some extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Peter Allison - like an affable, younger David Attenborough or a slightly more laid-back Steve Irwin - really knows his wildlife. Like the young woman who rejected the recommended safari-friendly khaki to wear a more 'fashionable' hot pink ensemble, or the Japanese tourist who requested a repeat performance of Allison's being charged by a lion so he could videotape it. Whatever You Do, Don't Run is his guide's-eye view of living in the bush, confronting the world's fiercest animals and, most challenging of all, managing herds of gaping tourists. Landing in a game reserve in the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta, he became a safari guide and, some twelve years later, his short holiday in Africa isn't over yet. But Africa worked its magic, and Peter ended up falling, quickly and completely, in love with the country and its wildlife. Every time I read it, I get something new from it.Peter Allison was only nineteen when he left Australia for Africa, thinking he might travel around and see a bit of the country before going home to a 'proper job'. I have written essays about it, flirted with handsome men over it, leant it out, given it away.

I have read this book at least ten times. It is about being young in the 1920s, with all its post-war glamour. It is about the rupture of war in every facet of life in every level of society. It’s about the American Dream and the violence inherent within it. It is about the madness and delusion of love. But this brief plot summary is not what the book is about. Nick watches his friend, Daisy, endure a loveless marriage to a bully and briefly revive an affair with the dazzling, deceitful, Jay Gatsby, before it all ends badly. It's set in 1922, on an island off New York City, narrated by the passive Nick Carraway. So richly lyrical that it always threatens to tip over into melodrama, but somehow never does, this brief but vibrant story always grounds itself in the fundamental need to be loved. How can I feel so uplifted, so enraptured, by a tragic story of deluded liars? The language: Fitzgerald’s writing is transcendent.

Is this the perfect novel? I suspect it is one of them.

Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison