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All the Way Home
By Bookey Peek Price: $26.95 |
Richard and Bookey Peek hadn’t planned on adopting a warthog, any more than one would plan a tidal wave, a tornado or triplets, but at Stone Hills natural disasters have a way of happening when you least expect them.
Through Zimbabwe’s darkest days, Stone Hills has become a world in itself, a place where you might share your shower with an owl or your bed with a baby squirrel, where crocodiles are named after unpopular guests and a rather individual warthog named Poombi relinquishes her place on the sofa to return to the wild – much to her indignation.
Engaging and delightful, this book is the exhilarating and intensely moving story of a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of Zimbabwe’s ancient, majestic Matobo Hills. It is a testament to one family’s passion for Africa’s wildlife and their conviction that nothing can change the essential nature of the land and its people.
About the Author
Both Richard and Bookey Peek are professional safari guides. After an idyllic childhood in the Bvumba mountains and ten years spent traveling the world, Bookey becamea lawyer, a profession she was only too happy to leave for a life in the bush.
Reviews
"This is an evocative book that captures, with great warmth and intimacy, the unique beauty of Africa."
- Sydney Morning Herald - Spectrum
"It is a wonderful book...And what a story she has to tell. Of giraffes and zebras, of owls and eagles, of bringing up a baby kingfisher fallen from the nest; of house fires, and mamba-bite panics, and poisonings, and political anxieties; of staff lunatic and loyal and of guests and clients who range from the loveable to the ludicrous."
- The Times (London)
"Out of Africa - professional safari guide Bookey Peek shares her moving story about caring for orphaned and injured animals on a wildlife sanctuary in a remote part of Zimbabwe."
- Notebook
"More than anything, All the Way Home is about a passion for animals and for the unique continent that is Africa, set against highly volatile times."
- Weekend Australian
"An inspirational woman."
- ABC Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler
"Bookey Peek's writing will enchant those who know and love Africa and those who have only dreamed of visiting. It is beautifully evocative of the people, the animals and the harsh landscape that make the continent so wonderful."
- The Independent Weekly
"An exhilarating story of a family's wildlife sanctuary in the heart of Zimbabwe's majestic Matobo Hills. Richard and Bookey Peek's passion for Africa's wildlife comes alive with personal stories about sharing their home with warthogs, owls and crocodiles."
- The Age
"More than an exotic fauna story."
- The Courier Mail
"Bookey Peek has written a funny, exhilarating, enjoyable thoughtful book. If you love animals, you'll absolutely adore the book."
- ABC Radio 702 with Richard Glover
"Even though Zimbabwe is in the news these days for all the wrong reasons, the Peeks' passion for the country is evident throughout this vibrant account of life at the sanctuary."
- Sydney Morning Herald
"Bookey...infects the reader with her enthusiasm for nearly every species...it’s a charming and readable memoir.
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- Adelaide Review
"Writing with easy, unaffected skill, Peek also speaks of the landscape, of assorted animals and insects, history and politics; all that has given her such a profound connection with Africa."
- The Adelaide Advertiser
"Every animal book needs its star. In Born Free it was Elsa the lioness. Here, it is Poombi the warthog. Think Babe without the looks, but with heaps of personality and attitude...The Peeks love and respect Zimbabwe, despite its current political an social chaos. For the animal-mad, of most ages."
- Sunday Age
"When the media is so often full of awful news about Zimbabwe, to find a book which presents the landscape and wildlife of that country in vivid and moving prose is a double delight. This book IS a delight, whether you are the type to share your bed with 'wild' animals or not, and provides a view of the 'essential' Africa, something which is fast disappearing."
- Waikato Times
"The book weaves its magic tale of the bush, the animals, the struggles of life and the love of the area all around what seems to be an insignificant creature to begin with, with the reader discovering, and rediscovering, that nothing is insignificant and that the essential nature of the land and its people are still the same...The author focuses in on what is good and beautiful about the place she has chosen to live."
- Rhodesians Worldwide magazine