Lion-sized love story updated, reissued due to popular demand

Originally published in 1971, “A Lion Called Christian” has been updated and reissued in response to the overwhelming popularity of a 2008 Internet video showing the joyful, moving reunion of a grown lion with the two men who had raised him. Here in the men’s own words is the story behind that amazing sight.

The authors, two young Australians living in London in the late 1960s, decided to adopt the lion cub from the eclectic department store Harrods because it promised to be an “exciting experience.” Although they now freely admit their naïveté, they always knew it would be a short-term stint until they found a more suitable home for the fast-growing animal.

Installed in a furniture shop in the hip Chelsea neighborhood, Christian was soon a local celebrity. The authors’ fond reminisces reveal how much fun (and work) it must have been to live with Christian, who was by all accounts an extraordinarily friendly and intelligent beast.

Before long, a chance encounter brought him to the attention of George Adamson, the celebrated lion advocate chronicled in the book and film “Born Free.” Adamson was building a pride of repatriated lions in Africa, and Christian was a perfect candidate. Bourke and Rendall describe in fascinating vignettes the attempts to familiarize the English lion with the ancestral home (and other lions) he had never known. But their bond with Christian was something the men never forgot, and as the famous footage shows, neither did Christian.

Thanks to the Internet, a new generation is now learning the story of Christian, a tale that not only warms the hearts of animal lovers, but also shines much-needed light on important issues of wildlife trafficking, animal rights and global conservation. Though much has changed since Christian’s day, Bourke, Rendall and Adamson make it clear that there is still a long way to go.