george adamson

Christian's story. Full ending and original soundtrack to the film "Christian, The Lion at World's End". Directed by Bill Travers,Commentary by Virgina mckenna, founders of the Born Free Foundation.  

It was London in the swinging sixties with the streets abuzz with Beatles impersonations, women in bright tent dresses, rock-and-roll cabarets and dodgy, smoke-filled nightclubs. In 1969 two Australian hippies, John Rendall and Ace Bourke, arrived in Kings Road, and in hot pursuit of the hedonistic life, bought an African lion cub from Harrods. When Christian the cub outgrew the basement of Rendall and Bourke's Chelsea furniture store they had no choice but to let him loose-into the wild.  

Barely a month goes by without news of someone getting into a tussle with a 'tame' big cat. A recent case in point showed a young lion in a South African resort roughing up a British journalist who thought it would make good copy to go into the animal's cage for a close encounter . It's easy to dismiss the stunt as journalistic nonsense (which it is) but dozens of operations across Africa sell similarly close encounters with lions to the average tourist.  

Angry Chase folk have labelled last week's Cannock Community Forum 'farcical and disgraceful' after the meeting was cut short to an hour due to industrial action. Members of the public turned up to the meeting in droves to quiz council chiefs over policies and problems in their area. But they were stunned when told the meeting would last only 60 minutes because of industrial action at Cannock Chase Council office's main building.

It was disgraceful that we were limited to one hour’s discussion as council staff allegedly did not realise that their colleagues are taking industrial action   -George Adamson

 

Barely a month goes by without news of someone getting into a tussle with a 'tame' big cat. A recent case in point showed a young lion in a South African resort roughing up a British journalist who thought it would make good copy to go into the animal's cage for a close encounter . It's easy to dismiss the stunt as journalistic nonsense (which it is) but dozens of operations across Africa sell similarly close encounters with lions to the average tourist.  

Bloody hell, Charles is one lucky writer. Thank goodness that lion still has his milk teeth! With adult canines the size of one's thumbs it would have been a great deal worse.  

Paddy Mannion at home with some of his music collection. Photo: Ann Hennessy. Nobody could be more at home in Athlone town than Paddy Mannion.  

On Aug. 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive led by Alexander Dubcek. On this date: In 1833, Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States, was born in North Bend, Ohio. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, months after fighting had stopped.  

Today is Thursday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2009. There are 133 days left in the year. Today's highlight in history:  

They repatriated Christian, the son of zoo lions, to Africa under the instruction of Born Free actor Bill Travers and wildlife specialist George Adamson. A YouTube video a couple of years ago brought it back to the forefront. Last week the documentary was on Discovery or one of those channels.