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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 180 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 180 pagesAbout this book
Night falls over the railway camp, and thorn fences cannot keep two lions from the workers’ tents.
John Henry Patterson arrives at the Tsavo River to build a bridge for the Uganda Railway. Then workers begin to vanish in the dark. Two maneless male lions seize men from their tents, turning a hard engineering job into a struggle to keep the camp safe and the railway moving.
In The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, Patterson tells his own story of the attacks and his attempts to stop them. Fires, thorn barriers, traps and armed vigils meet predators that keep returning. Beyond the hunt, his account follows railway work, workers brought from India, and the people and animals of East Africa as he encounters them.
What you’ll discover
- A camp under threat Feel the strain as repeated attacks make workers fear the darkness and refuse to stay.
- Ingenuity against danger Follow Patterson as he turns railway materials into traps and searches for ways to protect the camp.
- A bridge at stake See how fear threatens a construction project linking the coast with the interior.
- Beyond the lion hunt Explore Patterson’s encounters with East African wildlife and life around the railway works.
- An empire in view Read a personal memoir that reveals colonial enterprise through its author’s perspective and blind spots.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy true adventure, big-game and frontier stories, or railway tales told in a lively first-person voice by a man who met real danger.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An engineer arrives to build
- The hunters keep changing camps
- Every shelter has a weakness
- The bridge faces more than lions
- Fear brings work to a halt
- A trap cannot remove uncertainty
- Learning the country has limits
- The plains reward a cool head
- Small details carry enormous stakes
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The Man-Eaters of Tsavo
by J. H. Patterson · 1907
Two lions stop a railway in East Africa, and one engineer must hunt them in the dark.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Was he not fighting with a lion?”
In short
Picture a railway camp in East Africa in 1898. Thousands of workers sleep behind thorn fences, with fires burning all night.
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 10 min3 h 20 min fast, 5 h slow
- Length
- 59,700 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1907by J. H. Patterson
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young engineer lands in Mombasa
Patterson arrives at Mombasa on March 1, 1898, appointed to the construction staff of the Uganda Railway. He waits a week for orders, pitching his tent near Kilindini and buying supplies for a stay inland.
Then a letter sends him to Tsavo, about 132 miles inland. He rides up in a special train and crosses the Taru Desert, a country of red dust and scrub.
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Two lions stop a railway in East Africa, and one engineer must hunt them in the dark.
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Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 55 min
- Level
- Challenging
- Paperback
- 180 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 180 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 292 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 292 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Wed 2 Dec to Tue 8 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Patterson, J. H. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-eaters-of-tsavo.
Patterson, J. H. (2026). The man-eaters of Tsavo. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-eaters-of-tsavo (Original work published 1907)
Patterson, J. H. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-eaters-of-tsavo.
@book{patterson2026maneaters,
author = {Patterson, J. H.},
title = {The Man-Eaters of Tsavo},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-eaters-of-tsavo},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is The Man-Eaters of Tsavo about?
It is J. H. Patterson's own account of building a railway bridge at Tsavo in East Africa in 1898, while two lions killed and ate workers and stopped the work, followed by his later hunts and travels.
Is The Man-Eaters of Tsavo a true story?
Yes, it is presented as a factual memoir written in 1907 by the engineer who was there. Patterson says he toned his account down, and it was widely noticed at the time, including in Parliament.
How many people did the Tsavo lions kill?
The book says the two lions devoured twenty-eight Indian coolies, besides scores of African natives whose deaths were never officially recorded. Later estimates and figures given elsewhere differ from this.
The author
J. H. Patterson
British soldier and hunting writer
John Henry Patterson (1867–1947) was a British soldier, engineer and author. He was born in Ireland and died in California. In 1898 he worked on railway construction in Kenya. He published The Man-Eaters of Tsavo in 1907. During the First World War, he commanded Jewish units in the British Army.
“Was he not fighting with a lion?”
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