Product Description

ILLUSTRATED BY CHRISTIAN BIRMINGHAM. 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 you 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #427 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
A runaway schoolboy finds a magnificent monument to a magnificent animal in this ghost story, at once marvelous and matter-of-fact, from Morpurgo (Robin of Sherwood, 1996, etc.). The author casts himself as the ten-year-old narrator, whose attempt to run away from a miserable boarding-school existence ends in a dusty house, where a friendly old widow shows him a great lion cut into the chalk on a hillside - the butterfly lion. She tells him how it came to be there: Her Bertie, a lonely boy in South Africa, found and began to raise a white lion cub, tearfully saw it sold to a French circus owner, reclaimed it years later during the Great War, and brought it to England to live. When it died, Bertie spent the next 40 years carving its likeness on the hill. Astonishing in itself, the chalk lion becomes even moreso after a rain, when thousands of Adonis Blue butterflies gather on it. Urging him to come again, the old woman takes the boy back to school; only later does he learn that she died - as her husband did - years ago. This dreamlike story is suffused with a man's lifelong love for a rare, gentle animal friend. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
ILLUSTRATED BY CHRISTIAN BIRMINGHAM. 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 you 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.

From the Author
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.

To Chris McBride, Virigina McKenna and Gina Pollinger - many many thanks. And to you the reader - enjoy it! Michael Morpurgo (FEB 1996)

Customer Reviews

I Havent...But Amazon's....
I havent read this book yet, as i have only recived it today (12th september 08), but amazon sent it to me and it arived exactly when it should. Thankyouu! xThe Butterfly Lion

butterfly lion
the book makes you feel that you are in the achual in the story when you get into it. it has a mixture of sad times happy times and even some funny times.

THE BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ *****
Im 12 And I Read This Book When I Was 11 It Is Heart Warming And A Truely Moving Story, I Felt So Involved With The Story As If It Was Happening Infront Of Me, It Made Me Cry And 2 Parts, And I Advise EVERYBODY To Read It x
The Best Book Ever Made x