A View From A Tall Hill is an outstanding, unique selection for any avid reader of safari hunting material in general and for those already familiar with Robert Ruark's safari writings in particular. Ruark was an author, columnist, and hunter in the latter 20th century: though his career lasted less than fifteen years, he traveled extensively throughout Africa and produced newspaper reports which enlightened the world. His biography covers the man, his work, and the special attractions of hunting in Africa. Lively and revealing.

You must read this book twice: once for its obvious story line, Africa and the Mau-Mau revolt and the second time for its relationship to what is currently happening in America today.

The parallels are ominous. The British entered Kenya with the intent of 'civilizing' the savages. They imposed thier way of life on the natives of Kenya. However, the new values made no sense to the Kenyans. They did not understand the value of the white mans ways.

Similarly, todays intellectuals and social elitists are imposing a new value system on America's children. One that has no absolutes, no heroes of substance, no morality or ethics. The children don't know if they are good or bad. They have become value-less because of the lack of value. Nothing more than wondering generalities.

When you read this book with this perspective in mind, the reason for a lot of the problems that are occurring today become obvious, American society has become an amorphous blob of do what feels good whenever you feel like it and let someone else take care of you.

"Something of Value" is as revealing today as it was back in the '50s. If you read it with an open mind and are willing to draw parallels to today.

It is history being repeated.

This book was so accurate and so brutally honest that Ruark was banned from Kenya by the British and the Native Kenyan goverments. For those of you who don't know; Roberk Ruark was THE defining voice in America for Africa in the 1950's. His columns appeared in Field & Stream magazine when EVERYONE read Field & Stream. He was a celebrity with apartments in New York and a villa in Spain. These were the days when rich men ate red meat, went to Africa to "shoot lions" and were disappointed if it didn't charge! If you love African game stories and you belive in the superiority of Western civilization over shamanist tribalism then this book is for you. When the English colonized what is now Kenya it was a true clash of moderns with the Stone Age. These men (and women) had as rough a time as Americans did taming the West. Really more so because the Africans were more numerous than the American Indians and only one or two of our animals would eat you. After years of carving farms out of the harsh African veldt with the permission and support of the Britsh goverment the farmers suddenly found themselves put "out into the cold" by their goverment. The Socialists in England suddenly decided by vote to modernize the Native African from the Stone Age to the Industrial age overnight. From shamans and chiefs to democracy; brought in by "the Winds of Change". If you ever suspected that you have been lied to about Africa by the Desmond Tutu's and Nelson Mandela's of the world, if you want to know what is going to happen in South Africa in the next 10 years, if you need any more convincing that America's Africa policy caters more to Jesse Jackson than the true "status quo" of Africa, then this is the book for you. Ruark does a brillant job of juxapositioning the issues of tribesman and colonist alike. The politics and violence of MauMau are amazingly similar to the African National Congress. In Ruark's Africa everyone is right; and wrong. All the native born Africans in his book, Black and White alike, believe to the bottom of their soul in what they are doing. I don't think Kipling himself could have captured the essense of Africa any better!

I spent three of the most impressionable years of my live in Kenya in the early '70's as a State Department dependant. Even then, the Mau Mau uprising had a strong influence on day to day life in Kenya. Gun control laws were among the most strict in the world and for good reason. During my three years in Kenya I heard many stories from people who lived through the emergency. Most of these stories made Stephen King novels sound like childrens' tales. I could not count the times I've read both Uhuru and Something Of Value and each time they have taken me back in time to the Norfolk or New Stanley hotel. Everything about the book, from the safaris, to the uprising, are totally authentic. While this is not a "feel good" book, anyone who has a interest in East African history, or just wants to read on of the great books of this century MUST read this book. Even though this is a book of fiction, it should be required reading for anyone studying the history of Kenya. Make no mistake, most of the things written about in this book, no matter how disturbing, actually happened.

This is a book about a young boy and his relationship with his grandfather. A simple story, but it's mixture of good old fashion common sense, decency, repsect, love and childhood magic teach lessons that many people today would put to rest. This book will leave you yearning for America of old, wise elders, a fishing reel, a duck blind and a simpler yet more fulfilling life. This book is a treasure that should be used to teach children of today that family, nature, honor, and the simpler things in life are more important than anything today's society tells them. And if you ever looked upon your grandfather as a god, like I did, you may shed a tear or two from missing them so much. And yes, I'm a city boy.

My husband received this book for a gift right after we married. I had very little understanding of a real hunter and how holidays and seasons joyfully dictated whether he would be on a dove shoot or freezing cold in a duck blind. He and I read this book countless times and always shed a few tears. Ruark's stories and the sage advise of the old man made this young bride appreciate the land and to love and respect a fine bird dog and the desire to make a bird, fish or venison dinner into a Southern culinary delight. His description of Miss Lottie and her fruitcakes and hams at Christmas are so beautifuly written, that without a doubt,you would give it all up to spend one Christmans with the boy,the old man, and Miss Lottie! A hunter's dream of a way of life.

I first read The Old Man and the Boy when I was a youngster growing up in downstate Illinois. My Paternal Grandfather and my Father were in the sporting goods business, and were devout hunters and fishermen. Everything of value that I have retained to this day I learned at the feet of my two "Old Men". While sitting by a lake with a cane pole, waiting for a bluegill to come along, or freezing in a duck blind on the Mississippi River in the cold of winter, I was passed down the rules of sportsmanship and fair play. The kind of lessons that are taught in the Old Man and the Boy are for every generation to learn and cherish; "Clean up your own mess, consider the feelings of others, have respect for the land, water, and the other creatures who share it with us, practice conservation, know when to speak, and how to listen" Robert Ruark has spun a tale of wonder and delight, I highly recommend this book to anyone who would enjoy reading a great series of outdoor adventures, in a format that never talks down to the reader, insults your intellegence, or becomes stuffy. An outstanding book!!!

For those of us who were born a couple of generations after Robert Ruark hunted the African veldt and who cut our teeth on Peter Capstick's prose, this book is a must read. Ruark's tales harken to a halcyon age when hunters were still expected to follow up their own game, cut their own roads through the bush and build their own bridges. Anyone who has ever been bitten by the Africa bug, who has ever longed to seek out and kill something that could kill him in return and who has ached to feel his soul sweat in the glorious exertion of the hunt will appreciate Ruark's tales. Any collection on hunting or Africana is incomplete without this volume. Any collection on man searching for himself is incomplete without this book.

Between June of 1951, and his death on July 1,1965, Robert Ruark spent some time each year in Africa, both hunting and reporting on the changing scene on a continent he fell in love with at first sight, and this book covers those years using magazine articles Ruark wrote. It is more, far more, than a report on "today I shot this and yesterday I shot that" type of writing one so often sees in books of this nature. Some of Ruark's articles on the Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya are included, as fine a piece of straight reporting as was ever done on the terror of that period, along with a short story with (of course) an African/ Mau-Mau theme included as well. Some may complain about Ruark's apparent racism, but the best answer to that is to remind those critcs that both the English colonial government of Kenya AND its first "native" (black African) government both wound up banning Ruark from entering the country. When a reporter gets both sides mad at him its usually a sign that he is doing a fairly rounded job. Robert Ruark loved Africa as he loved no place (and few people), and the articles in this book show that. Those who disapprove of the sport of hunting will want to skip this book, since safaris make up the biggest part of it, but anyone interested in a view of Africa during the turbulent times of the '50's and early '60's would not want to miss it, and anyone interested the fine writing of the driven, self destructive genius that was Robert Ruark MUST have this book.....