Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to the African savannah. Her bestselling books The Hidden Life of Dogs and The Tribe of Tiger, among others, have transported millions of readers into the mysterious lives of animals. Now she transports us into her own remarkable life and delivers a memoir that is both insightful and inspirational.
Dreaming of Lions traces Thomas’s life from her earliest days, including when, as a young woman in the 1950s, she and her family traveled to the Kalahari Desert to study the Ju/Wa Bushmen The experience taught her not only how to observe but also how to navigate male-dominated fields like anthropology and animal science and to do what she cared about most: spending time with animals and people in wild places, and relishing the people and animals around her at home.
Readers join Thomas as she returns to Africa, married and with children, ending up in the turmoil leading to Idi Amin’s bloody coup. Throughout this memoir, she invites us into her family life, her writing, and her fascination with animals—elephants in Namibia, dogs in her kitchen, and cougars near her farmhouse in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. She also recounts personal struggles, writing about her own life with the same fierce honesty that she applies to the surrounding world.
