In 2008 an extraordinary two-minute film clip appeared on YouTube® and immediately became an international phenomenon. It captures the moving reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa to introduce him into his rightful home in the wild.
A Lion Called Christian tells the remarkable story of how Anthony “Ace” Bourke and John Rendall, visitors to London from Australia in 1969, bought the boisterous lion cub in the pet department of Harrods. For several months, the three of them shared a flat above a furniture shop on London’s King’s Road, where the charismatic and intelligent Christian quickly became a local celebrity. But the lion cub was growing up–fast–and soon even the walled church garden where he went for exercise wasn’t large enough for him. A coincidental meeting with English actors Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers led to Christian being flown to Kenya and placed under the expert care of George Adamson. Incredibly, when Ace and John returned to Kenya to see Christian a year later, they received a loving welcome from their lion, who was by then fully integrated into Africa and a life with other lions.