The Butterfly Lion

Michael Morpurgo (author), Christian Birmingham (illustrator)

A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion.

“All my life I’ll think of you, I promise I will. I won’t ever forget you.”

Bertie rescues an orphaned white lion cub from the African veld. They are inseparable until Bertie is sent to boarding school far away in England and the lion is sold to a circus. Bertie swears that one day they will see one another again, but it is the butterfly lion which ensures that their friendship will never be forgotten.

The Butterfly Lion grew from several magical roots: The memories of a small boy who tried to run away from school a long time ago; a book about a pride of white lions discovered by Chris McBride; a chance meeting in a lift with Virginia McKenna, actress and champion of lions and all creatures born free; a true story of a soldier of the First World War who rescued some circus animals in France from certain death; and the sighting from a train of a white horse carved out on a chalky hillside near Westbury in Wiltshire.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks; Special "Ottakar's" Edition (1 Jan. 1996)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9780006751038
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.1 x 1.1 x 19 cm