A Lion Called Christian Book Review

A lion Called Christian is the true story recounting the journey of two Australians Ace and John who in 1969 bought a lion cub from Harrods department store in London.  Readers will enjoy learning just how one goes about sharing a flat/apartment with a boisterous lion cub and raising the lion cub who is constantly growing.

A Lion Called Christian is an entertaining quick read that will be enjoyed by adults and young adults alike.  Christian is a lion cub that you will immediately fall in love with and his antics are entertaining – have you ever heard of a lion cub that enjoys playing wheel barrow with people?  Besides the entertainment value, A Lion Called Christian shows that lions are not the beasts that they have been portrayed as and that they have individual personalities and temperaments and can form deep bonds with humans. 

While A Lion Called Christian is entertaining, it also raised some disturbing issues for me.  One that Ace and John acknowledge in the book being that by purchasing Christian as a lion cub that they participated in the wildlife trade, a business that is frequently just that a business and that doesn’t consider the needs of the animals.  In the past it also meant that animals were taken from the wild, but fortunately this happens less today.  Furthermore Ace and John acknowledged that when they bought Christian as a lion cub, they knew they would only be able to keep him for a matter of months, not years.  When they purchased him they had no plan for Christian’s future beyond his few months as a lion cub, even though lions can live up to 20 years in captivity.  They admit that this was indulgent and fretted over the possibility of Christian ending up in a zoo or a circus which they agreed would be unfair to him, especially after the months he spent with Ace and John trying to meet Christian’s needs as best as they could and where Christian was loved and showed affection.  By miracle of all miracles Christian had a happy ending (which I won’t spoil for you here) but my concern is that most lion cubs, or other animals bought under these circumstances would not have a happy ending and would be destined to a mundane existence in a zoo or much worse, in a circus where animals are treated terribly.  

Although it is not possible in most countries to buy exotic wildlife in a department store, in some countries it is legal to still purchase exotic wildlife and my concern is that A Lion Called Christian will encourage people to purchase lion cubs and other exotic animals as pets when they really are best suited in their natural habitat.  

My other criticism of A Lion Called Christian is that although the intention of the book was to tell Christian’s story, I was disappointed to see that more lion facts were not included since the book was a perfect opportunity to educate readers on lion facts which are entertaining in themselves and could have helped overcome the above mentioned shortcoming of the true story of A Lion Called Christian.  

A Lion Called Christian was first published in 1971 and was revised in March 2009 with the inclusion of more than 50 photos of Christian the Lion after the “Youtubelion” video surfaced in 2008 generating millions of hits from viewers and a new generation who was not familiar with the A Lion Called Christian story. 

On the back flap of the cover A Lion Called Christian is touted as “... is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature.”  While I believe this is a stretch, readers will enjoy the story and getting to know Christian and it has been on the best seller list for weeks.  I just hope that the book doesn’t inadvertently encourage readers to try and purchase their own lion cub or other exotic wildlife.  It is with these hesitations that I recommend A Lion Called Christian for all animal lovers and young readers.