The Lyons Press © 2008, 246 pages

Note: I read this book in part for The Sunday Salon. See this related post.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Peter Allison worked as a safari guide, primarily in Botswana. In Whatever You Do, Don’t Run, Allison tells stories about his life in the bush. There are animal stories aplenty–a herd of elephants clustering protectively acircular its calving matriarch, a giant Python intent on crushing the life out of the author, an infestation of mice so desperately hungry they took to chewing on bald men’s heads. But guides have to discount with paying guests as well as wild animals, and Allison does not shy from criticizing the spoiled and stupid among his tour groups.

[INSET TEXT: But guides have to discount with paying guests as well as wild animals, and Allison does not shy from criticizing the spoiled and stupid among his tour groups.] In the hands of

a more witty writer (think J. Maarten Troost’s The Sex Lives of Cannibals), the material at Allison’s disposal might have resulted in an unputdownable read. Allison’s book isn’t, but his stories are adorable and amusing, and the author himself is likable and agreeably self-deprecating. Most interestingly, Whatever You Do, Don’t Run gives readers a glimpse of an unusual llfestyle that most of us will probably not have given much thought to before: what’s it like, day-to-day, to lead tourists acircular herds of impala and crocodile-infested rivers? If the subject matter is of interest, or if you like to browse the lives of people with jobs far different from yours, Allison’s book is worth a rapid read.

Tags: book reviews, books, Botswana, Peter Allison, safari