The Lion Behind the Anthill by Gill Shaddick is a captivating memoir about love, adventure and travel to exotic places.
Gill met her soulmate Mike in Central Africa. He was a reckless, optimistic and adorable biologist who matched her thirst for adventure. They set out on an itinerant life of work and travel where nothing ever quite went to plan. In Iran, they lived an expat life of luxury; in Sudan they made do with no running water or electricity; in Zimbabwe, they had a fishing business on Lake Kariba in the middle of a war zone; in Scotland, they farmed rabbits on the remote Galloway peninsula.
After surviving those challenges, they moved to Australia where Mike was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. While they shared the same goal – to regain Mike’s health – their approaches set them as far apart as strangers in an unfamiliar terrain.
Gill decided a new adventure was their only way out. The gamble paid off and delivered Mike back to life and love.
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
Outstanding book and quite unforgettable! A travelogue/adventure story/colourful history/love story and much more.
We read it with joy and sadness. Tears and shrieks of laughter.
Gill writes with such a quirky sense of humour – even the tragic parts!
Highly recommend this book, it has huge wide appeal.
Congratulations.
Diana & Hans Hansen
Phil Kerrigan –
Gill seems to personify the type of person who isn’t happy unless she has a challenge and she came across many in her travels. A spirit of adventure and fun to make the most of it all. A book very well written and hard to put down and the areas visited jumped to life and the characters met were real and easy to picture and enjoy. A really interesting read and a good picture of how others handle their lives. Quiet determination is a good description I believe. The patience of Job would have helped as well.