Virginia McKenna celebrates her 90th birthday on 7th June. The Great and the Good – including Joanna Lumley, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister’s fiancée – are lobbying for her to be made a dame in recognition of her inspirational work for animal conservation.
‘Goodness,’ says a surprised Virginia. ‘I have no desire for personal honours.
‘I have been privileged to help wonderful animals and gained immense happiness when we’ve given them back their dignity and space in their natural environment. That’s my reward.’
It’s 37 years since Virginia, her husband Bill Travers and their eldest son, Will, founded Zoo Check which became the animal charity Born Free. It took the name from her 1966 Oscar-winning film about Elsa, an orphaned lion cub successfully rehomed in the wild by Kenyan game wardens George and Joy Adamson, author of the original book Born Free (1960).
Born Free’s hauntingly beautiful title song, sung by Matt Monro, helped boost our relationship with the natural world.
The first Zoo Check event was in a Chelsea pub in 1984, with an auction conducted by Ronnie Corbett, raising £2,000. Today it has 200 employees and the annual £5m income saves wild animals trapped in circuses and zoo cages. It rehouses them in sanctuaries on the African savanna.
Born Free and Virginia have just had a significant success. After they lobbied for nearly 25 years, the South African government has just banned ‘canned hunting’ – shooting lions bred in captivity, released in pens behind wire.
Bu hikaye The Oldie Magazine dergisinin June 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Oldie Magazine dergisinin June 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Travel: Retreat From The World
For his new book, Nat Segnit visited Britain’s quietest monasteries and islands to talk to monks, hermits and recluses
What is... a nail house?
Don’t confuse a nail house with a nail parlour. A nail house is an old house that survives as new building development goes on all around it.
Kent's stairway to heaven
Walter Barton May’s Hadlow Castle is the ultimate Gothic folly
Pursuits
Pursuits
The book that changed the world
On Marcel Proust’s 150th anniversary, A N Wilson praises his masterpiece, an exquisite comedy with no parallel
RIP the playboys of the western world
Charlie Methven mourns his dashing former father-in-law, Luis ‘the Bounder’ Basualdo, last of a dying breed
Arts
Arts
My film family's greatest hits
Downton Abbey producer Gareth Neame follows in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandmother, a silent-movie star
Books
Books
A lifetime of pin-ups
Barry Humphries still has nightmares about going on stage. He’s always admired the stars who kept battling on