In 1898 the British began building a bridge over the Tsavo River in Africa; in nine months, two lions killed 135 workers. Bruce Patterson has conducted extensive fieldwork on these lions and presents new evidence on the killings and also explores man's interaction with the Kenyan environment, creating a comprehensive portrait of the lions of Tsavo

When the British government undertook the construction of the Uganda Railway through East Africa in 1898, harsh criticism from the press, tremendous amounts of money spent, and rebelliousness of the workers turned out to be the least of the government’s worries. Their biggest obstacle came in the form of two ravenous lions with a taste for human flesh, terrorizing the 35,000 laborers building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. After killing more than one hundred-thirty people over the course of nine months, the lions completely halted construction, as the workers were too afraid to continue. Colonel John Henry Patterson, the chief engineer overseeing the project, then took matters into his own hands. An inexperienced hunter at the time, but a courageous and clever man, he took on the beasts and single-handedly brought an end to their nine-month reign of terror. Patterson’s true account of his gripping and terrifying adventures confronting the lions and overseeing the project termed “The Lunatic Line,” while tackling countless other obstacles, is a must for anyone looking for a thrilling read. With over 100 original photos of the East African lands, native tribes, and wild animals, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is a true hunting classic.

The Man-eaters of Tsavo is a book written by John Henry Patterson in 1907 that recounts his experiences while overseeing the construction of a railroad bridge in what would become Kenya. It is titled after a pair of lions which killed his workers, and which he eventually killed. Following the death of the lions, the book tells of the bridge's completion in spite of additional challenges (such as a fierce flood) as well as many stories concerning local wildlife (including other lions), local tribes, the discovery of the maneaters' cave, and various hunting expeditions. An appendix contains advice to sportsmen visiting British East Africa. The book also includes photographs taken by Patterson at the time which include the railway construction; the workers; local tribes; scenery and wildlife; and the man-eaters. Several publications about and studies of the man-eating lions of Tsavo have been inspired by Patterson's account. The book has been adapted to film three times: a monochrome, British film of the 1950s, a 1952 3-D film titled Bwana Devil, and a 1996 color version called The Ghost and the Darkness, where Val Kilmer played the daring engineer who hunts down the lions of Tsavo.

From the master of adventure behind the classic Death in the Long Grass, former big-game hunter Peter Hathaway Capstick now turns from his own exploits to those of some of the greatest hunters of the past with Death in the Silent Places. With his characteristic color and flair, Capstick recalls the extraordinary careers of men like Colonel J.H. Patterson and Colonel Jim Corbett, who stalked legendary man-eaters through the silent darkness on opposite sides of the world; men like Karamojo Bell, acknowledged as the greatest elephant hunter of all time; men like the valiant Sasha Siemel, who tracked killer jaguars though the Matto Grosso armed only with a spear. With an authenticity gained by having shared the experiences he writes of, Capstick eloquently recreates the acrid taste of terror in the mouth of a man whose gun has jammed as a lion begins his charge, the exhilaration of tracking and finding a long-sought prey, the bravery and even nobility of performing under circumstances of primitive and savage stress, with death all around in the silent places of the wilderness.

The Man-eaters of Tsavo is an autobiography by soldier and author John Henry Patterson. It narrates his encounters in East Africa while overseeing the building of a railroad bridge, all the while being threatened by lurking dangerous lions.

The story is familiar to movie fans-the horrifying tale of the 1907 book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo has been retold by Hollywood many times, most recently in the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness-but hearing it directly from the source remains a thrill.Patterson, a natural storyteller, immerses us in the horror of the workers' fear and his own attempts to track the beast, which eventually would kill 140 people before Patterson took them out.This real-life escapade will rivet fans of adventure fiction and nonfiction alike.Anglo-Irish hunter JOHN HENRY PATTERSON (1867-1947) was an officer in the British army when he was commissioned by the British East Africa Company to oversee the construction of a railway bridge in Kenya. Just after he arrived in Africa, a pair of rogue male lions-animals that do not typically attack humans-began preying on the railroad workers, killing them viciously and consuming their corpses.