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Lauren St John was born in Gatooma, Rhodesia, now Kadoma, Zimbabwe, in December 1966. After studying journalism in Africa, she moved to London, where she was for many years golf correspondent to The Sunday Times. She is the author of several books on sports, the biography Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle, and one children's novel, The White Giraffe.
Tales of children who share a special bond with animals were the stuff of many modern parents' own childhoods, growing up as we did with Lassie, Flipper, Flicka and Andre Norton's SF novels about the Beast Master. Yet only recently have such stories found their fullest expression for a new generation. Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness about Stone Age Torak is one such, but for slightly younger readers, Lauren St John's South African tales about the orphaned Martine are terrific.
A film of the first book looks increasingly likely as the director and the child star of Bridge to Terabithia have been signed to it by Walden Media, the branch of Disney that has been filming the Narnia books. If it is made, St John plans to open an animal sanctuary in South Africa with the money, re-creating her own childhood paradise. It would be the first family film to be set in Africa since The Lion King. But long before that, you hope that readers will have discovered the good-hearted charm of this quartet for themselves.
Lauren St. John grew up in Zimbabwe and lived on a farm that was part of a game reserve. She had lots of pets, including dogs, horses, warthogs, and even a giraffe! She says that if her books encourage yld"even one person to want to help wildlife or to visit or want to know more about Africa, that would make [her] incredibly happy.crd" Ms. St. John is a celebrated sports journalist and biographer and lives in London. The White Giraffe was her first novel for young people.
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