Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters

"Africa in my Blood is an extraordinary self-portrait in letters of Jane Goodall's early years, from childhood to the publication of In the Shadow of Man, revealing this remarkable woman more vividly than anything published before, by her or about her.

We see her at eleven founding the Alligator Society ("You have to be able to recognize 10 birds, 10 dogs, 10 trees and 5 butterflies OR moths"): at seventeen developing a crush on the local minister ("He has a beautiful long nose and he loves dogs"); at twenty punting at Oxford - and falling out of the boat ("And I stood in the water - up to my chest - and roared and roared with laughter"); at twenty-two working at a film company and saving for a trip to Africa.".

"At twenty-three, she took that trip, to "the Africa I have always longed for, always felt stirring in my blood."".

"The turning point of her life came when a friend told her. "If you are interested in animals, you must meet Louis Leakey." And when she did meet the legendary anthropologist, he saw in this young secretarial school graduate the ideal candidate to undertake a revolutionary study of chimpanzees. He sent her to the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika, where she immersed herself in the lives of wild animals as no one had ever done before.

Goodall has told this story in other books, but never so immediately and emotionally." "Africa in My Blood is a dramatic, moving, funny, and important book that tells the story of how an English girl who loved animals became one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.