Ahead of her time
- Book: Thank You, Madagascar: The Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly
- Location: Madagascar
- Author: Alison Jolly
It was only when I read “Thank you, Madagascar” that I discovered what a multi-skilled woman Alison Jolly had been. She was a zoologist but – unusually, perhaps – she was also a people person, a humanitarian. She didn’t see people as the enemy of her precious lemurs, but as part of their world. She was ahead of her time in that. This memoir communicates all this but also documents some of the shenanigans that go on even in the midst of famine and profound human suffering.
Her posthumous diaries are witness to Alison’s tremendous range of abilities, and her passion. Reading this book transported me back to the Great Red Island where I delighted in her lemurs, and suffered with her as she struggled to protect them through endless meetings and politicking at local, national and international levels.
This is a worthy monument to the amazing woman who first documented female dominance in primates (and, as it happens, tried to persuade Dreamworks to make King Julian female). Alison’s memoir is also wonderfully readable and entertaining.
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