Life and Death of a Pool

"The Life and Death of a Pool" shows Africa as it really is. Without frills or fanfare, without seeking the sensational or striving to sentimentalise the painful, it describes - and illustrates - the stress suffered by wild animals as their source of water dries up. John Struthers spent six weeks, during the heat of an African "spring" season - September and October - beside a particular pool, watching and photographing the heightening drama during a time when this usually reliable body of water failed the many animals that had come to depend upon it. The text contains stories of excitement and danger as well. A head-on encounter with a young cow elephant and her calf, an attack by a swarm of bees, the story of a man who ended up underneath an elephant - and lived - these tales add spice to the growing concern for the many animals struggling to survive that permeates his text.