A Falling Star: True Story of Romance - Hardcover

Elephant Have Right of Way and four later books attracted attention to the author and her late husband Jock Leslie-Melville. The American woman and the Scottish Earl met and wed in Kenya in 1963, the start of 18 years of devotion not only to each other but to protecting African wildlife. Here, the author describes the exciting, amusing and ultimately wrenching story of the couples' adventures. They founded A FEW (African Fund for Endangered Wildlife: "only a few left") and traveled ceaselessly, raising contributions, appearing on TV in America and other countries; they established and managed a game preserve for the rare giraffe species (Raising Daisy Rothschild that shared their home. There are anecdotes about celebrities who visited the couple and supported their efforts on behalf of the vanishing animals. Many of these people became helpful personal friends to the family after Jock Leslie-Melville suffered a fatal brain tumor at age 47. The author has carried on the couple's mission, as she does in this love story which is also a plea for conservation.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Charming, anecdotal books about African wildlife conservation such as Raising Daisy Rothschild ( LJ 1/15/78) have been a stock in trade of Betty Leslie-Melville and her late husband Jock, but she is no Isak Dinesen. Despite her having led a Cinderella life, romping with rare animals one day and rubbing shoulders with celebrities the next, her memoir suffers from a superficial writing style. What begins as a chatty, if insubstantial collection of reminiscences liberally sprinkled with famous names deteriorates into a maudlin account of Jock Leslie-Melville's slow death from a brain tumor. A secondary purchase for public libraries. Laurie Tynan, Huntingdon Cty. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.