The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is a semi-autobiographical book written by British soldier and author John Henry Patterson. Published in 1907, it recounts his experiences in East Africa while supervising the construction of a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya, in 1898. It is titled after a pair of man-eating lions that terrorized the undertaking for nine months until at last their reign of terror was put to an end by Patterson. His recounting of this incident projected him to fame, and it has also been the basis of numerous films, the best known being The Ghost and the Darkness (1996).