Christian the Lion

I spent a week in Missouri recently.  I took along with me the book A Lion Called Christian by Anthony Bourke, John Rendell, and George Adamson.  I've loved the story of Christian as shown on Youtube for a few years now.  And I've watched each version of it many times.  So the story in the book was no surprise.  But there were many details in the book that I had not known before about Christian's relationship with his two legged friends.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  It inspired this journal page created with watercolor paint and Derwent water soluable sketching pencils.

The story of Christian the lion is set in the late 60's in England where two Australian young men purchased a lion cub from Harrods Department store.  Can you imagine?  They raised him for many months living in their home with them. The three of them loved each other dearly.  When Christian was around a year old, John and Anthony (Ace) transported him to Africa where George Adamson, of the Born Free story, helped Christian learn how to live free and wild as was appropriate for him.  The video shows the reunion when John and Ace visited Christian a year later after living as a wild lion.  He had not forgotten them.  Rather, he greeted them with hugs and kisses.

Here is one of the many videos about Christian.  There are better ones but this one tells the story well, and I love the addition of the Whitney Houston song.

Wind and Honey Creations