African Adventure - Willard Price

Published by Knight Books/Brockhampton Press Ltd: England, 1971. 
First published 1963.
Book 6 in the 'Adventure' series. Preceded by 'Whale Adventure.' Followed by 'Elephant Adventure.'

In this book, Hal and Roger are reunited with their father in Africa, once again with the purpose of collecting live animals for various zoos and circuses. Of course, with the book's main focus being the brothers and not their father, the older Hunt is quickly side-lined.

As with the earliest entries in the 'Adventure' series (particularly Amazon Adventure), the role that the Hunt family have is the part that feels the most dated; a family of giraffes is destined for a zoo, a mother and child baboon are destined for a circus. And once again, if the reader can cope with that type of job, the storyline is informative (about the habits of animals), mildly exciting, and fairly straightforward. 

These books have clear villains and problems to overcome, and the brothers always rise to the challenge. In this entry, we get a racist foil in the shape of 'Colonel' Biggs, a white African who pretends to be a mighty hunter but is an absolute coward. We also get a secondary threat in the form of the Leopard Society, a secretive group (that the author of the book assures us is real) who seek to kill the Hunts due to them killing a leopard in self-defense. Despite the presence of Biggs, the 'white saviour' tropes abound, particularly around Hal's interactions with a local witchdoctor, and some convenient coincidences help the Hunts to come out on top.

Like all books in this series, it is an easy read, if not an especially memorable one.

Completed 6 December 2025.

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