Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa

by Mark Seal

WILDFLOWER is the gripping life story of the naturalist, filmmaker and lifelong conservationist Joan Root. From her passion for animals and her hard-fought crusade to save Kenya's beautiful Lake Naivasha, to her storybook love affair, Root's life was one of a remarkable modern-day heroine. After 20 years of spectacular, unparalleled wildlife filmmaking together, Joan and Alan Root divorced and a fascinating woman found her own voice. Renowned journalist Mark Seal has written a breathtaking portrait of a strong woman discovering herself and fighting for her beliefs before her mysterious and brutal murder in Kenya. With a cast as wild, wondrous and unpredictable as Africa itself, WILDFLOWER is a real-life adventure tale set in the world's disappearing wilderness. Rife with personal revelation, intrigue, corruption and murder, readers will remember Joan Root's extraordinary journey long after they turn the last page of this compelling book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Biography, Nature, Kenya, Environment, Book Club

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

A journalist for thirty-five years, Mark Seal is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Death in Africa, about the murdered wildlife filmmaker and naturalist Joan Root. Seal was a 2010 National Magazine Award finalist for his Vanity Fair profile of Clark Rockefeller.

He lives in Aspen, Colorado.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mark Seal admits in the opening of the book that he had never been to Kenya before he decided to research this story for an article that grew into a book. The early part of the book, which deals with Joan and Alan Root's early lives and the development of their film making careers, as well as the eventual end of their marriage and partnership, is an interesting personal story. But when Seal moves on to describe Joan's life alone, and the personal and political circumstances that led to murder, the level of research is clearly not stellar and the story becomes nothing more than a rehashing of news stories and court testimony interspersed with tributes to Joan's personal qualities. In the murky world of Kenyan class, race and tribal politics Seal is clearly way out of his depth. His research is sketchy and seems not even to have included some obvious traditional sources of social and political history. The last quarter of the book is interesting but disappointingly shallow.

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about Joan Root ... naturalist, filmmaker, conservationist. Quite a woman, indeed. Her life, from birth to death, is covered using her diaries/letters, and the author's own interviews. You may know her from the wildlife documentaries in the 1970s, made with her then-husband, Alan Root.

3 Stars = Okay. Glad I read it.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography of Joan Root opened my eyes to the world of nature films in Africa in the 1960s through to the 1990s. I wasn't familiar with the name of Joan and Alan Root, who labored out of love for the land and each other, to produce multiple award-winning films, primarily about Africa. Joan was born in Kenya, met and married Alan there, and embarked on a life of adventure with him, creating films about the world around them.

As an offshoot of this, Joan also adopted wounded/injured animals and nursed them back to health. After the end of her marriage, outlined in full detail, Joan stayed on at the home she loved, trying to reinvent herself. This book provides some information on the second stage of her life but the more interesting material is in the first stage. The later years involve the downward spiral of Kenya, the degradation of the environment and corruption of the government. Ultimately this story ends with Joan's murder in her Kenyan home.

Seal originally wrote an article about Joan for Vanity Fair. The book is an expansion on that article. While the story is interesting and Joan obviously led a very adventurous life, there just seems to be something missing from the reading experience. I was left wanting more than Seal provides, something meatier.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good story & reminded me of all the wonderful & all the awful things of Kenya. But I was a little annoyed at the biased view of her husband after their split. He was really taking advantage of her & not treating her well, and the book still treats him as this wonderful person who was a victim of circumstances when in reality he was a victim of his own selfish actions.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am familiar with the Root's documentaries. If you have seen any nature documentaries at all, you sometimes feel frustrated how someone can film an animal in distress and not help somehow. Even though it may be for science, a starving or suffering animal is very difficult to watch. I've always liked the Root's documentaries because they do help. When the Wildebeest gets stuck crossing the Mara River, Alan risks his life to pull it out. Does it make a difference? No, only to that wildebeest. When they film the Great Horn bills on the nest, they carefully remove the weaker chick and feed it so it will survive instead of filming its slow, painful death. I thought, and still do, that that was great. Film-makers with compassion.

I didn't even know that Joan Root died. I certainly didn't know the circumstances surrounding it. I'm angry at Joan for being such a door mat and angry at Alan for not seeing the great woman she was until it was too late. Such a tragedy...

[Aria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf p. 56. This woman is pretty neat, but this writing, like Joan's husband, is not best suited to her. She deserves better.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book written by Mark Seal, a Vanity Fair editor, who tells the story of the life and murder of Joan Root who along with her husband Alan Root, are Oscar winning African wildlife filmmakers. Joan Root's story is one of her unconditional love for her husband, Africa, and the wild animals that inhabit Kenya and Lake Naivaasha, her Kenyan home. She was a strong, principled, beautiful woman, who dedicated her life to protecting and fighting to preserve every beast, reptile, fish, and fowl that lives on the beautiful and treacherous continent of Africa. In the end, she lost her husband and eventually her life to his temptation and Africa's violent corruption. It is a very emotional read, as well as informative. The insight into the flower market business in Africa is an eye-opener, you will never buy another rose in the supermarket again!

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extraordinary life that could have been better served. I was right to be worried about the sentimental title and put off by the emotive opening featuring the longed for return of her exhusband. The biography did include some interesting information about the wildlife films and some evocative passages from her journals and letters.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.gerberadaisydiaries.com/20...

Joan Root was in love: with her husband, her native Africa, the animals that surrounded her and her home. She built a life filming those things with her husband, award winning documentary film director, Alan Root. But after Alan left her for another woman, she had to rediscover who she was and what in life was worth fighting for. She found that in her home – her 80 acres and small farm on the banks of Lake Naivasha in Kenya. When industrial hot houses that “farmed” roses started flourishing on the banks of the lake, and poachers started invading her land to capture the wildlife and fish, Joan found a cause – that of rescuing the lake and rehabilitating those causing the most harm. What she didn’t realize was by championing this effort, she was setting in motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead to her brutal death.

Author Mark Seal has taken the life of a quiet, devoted woman, who wanted nothing more than to live a life with Alan and her animals, and written a beautiful tribute. He was given access to her many letters and diaries – and it was as if Joan herself was speaking to us.

We learn of the extraordinary talents she had organizing the many safaris, hot air balloon trips, and expeditions, to film the amazing documentaries that she and Alan made together. How she put herself in harm’s way to get exactly the right film shot and scene. She spent endless hours on location and in conditions most people wouldn’t tolerate. We also learn of the tremendous heartbreak she endured – and never really recovered from – when the love of her life left her for another woman. She was always looking to the skies – waiting for Alan to return, via helicopter, to the home they shared on Lake Naivasha.

Finally we learn of the tragic outcome – the home invasions, the threats made against her and her property, when she singularly takes it upon herself to save the greatest thing of all – her land.

This was an amazing story, about an unassuming, but powerful woman, whose life was ended tragically.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this book. It was quite interesting, though I think I enjoyed the first half more than the second half. During the first half of the book, you learn about Joan and Alan Root's lives as wildlife film makers. The second half of the book focuses on Joan's life after her divorce from Alan and her crusade to try to save Lake Naivasha where she made her home. The second half of the book is much darker and Joan has a much more isolated and lonely life.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow what a amazing life Joan led. I devoured this book in a single day. I'm surprised she wasn't more famous although Seal explains why in the book.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s no question that Joan Root lead an extraordinary life. She traveled all over Africa (and other places too) filming wildlife and in her later years lead conservation efforts at her beloved lakeside home. She is definitely worthy of a published biography, but this book fell far short of the mark. The author spends so much time fawning over her philandering husband that maybe those two should get a room. Rather than speak about Joan and her accomplishments as a whole person, she is often relegated to being Alan-adjacent.

“But above all, she was the wife and partner of Alan Root. He was front and center in everything she did.”

“Joan never seemed put out in any way with Alan’s delight in pushing the envelope and this gave him his head, when in any other marriage the female partner would invariably have insisted that such ‘irresponsible’ behavior was curtailed. Joan was not doing so as indulgence, she knew he just HAD to do these things.”

Even after Alan is out of her life, the author cannot resist using the phrase “Joan Root’s post-Alan existence” to describe her years trying to save the lake.

Her story would have been far better served in the hands of someone else. Joan deserves so much better.

[Pamela Okano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a 4.5. In October 1987, I spent three weeks at Elsamere on the shores of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, as a volunteer on an Earthwatch expedition run by professors from the University of Leicester. Elsamere was the former home of Joy Adamson, of Born Free fame. During that time, Joan Root, the former wife of the famous husband/wife wildlife filmmaking team dropped by. Little did I know that 9 years later, she would be murdered in her house, also on the shores of Lake Naivasha. This fascinating book is about her life both during and after her marriage to Alan Root. Well worth reading for lovers of African wildlife and wildlife conservation.

[IreneS · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book left me torn.. I wasn't sure if I loved it or if it came up short. Turns out, both are true

I was fortunate to meet Root in 1999. I had gone on an Earthwatch trip in Naivasha and she was kind enough to open her home to the 'volunteers' because of her relationship with Dr David Harper, one of the principal investigators. My memory if Joan Root is a tall, older woman who I had trouble keeping up with as she showed us the lake, who grabbed her pet mongoose Timmy by the tail and carried him off when he began nipping at our ankles. She didn't strike me as a woman who could easily be duped, or a wilting flower crying because she was barren. Quite the opposite.

The first half of the book provided so much insight into Root's colorful life. I wasn't so pleased with the second half of the book, it painted her as a woman who whined about 'not having a man to lean on'. Seal also glossed over the strife that was brewing in Naivasha at the time, which boiled over into horrific ethnic violence between the Kikuyu and Lao tribes shortly after Root's murder.

Naivasha is a magical but deadly place.. I can see why Root remained even when logically she knew she was in danger. To me there are so many parallels to the life of Joy Adamson, who also lived on the same lake and also died defending the animals that she loved.

These women are heros and I'm honored to have spent even a few hours in the presence of Joan Root. I wish this book had done her justice, and spent less time defining her as the broken hearted, abandoned wife of Alan Root.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In September 2006, I had the great pleasure of travelling to Kenya where I worked with conservationists on various research initiatives in the Rift Valley. We worked, part of the time, on Joan Roots property on the shore of Lake Naivasha where she was murdered just 9 months before my trip. After hearing much about Joan, from my colleagues I was working with that knew her personally, I could not wait to read this book and learn more about her absolutely amazing life. While I did not find the book exceptionally well written, the story certainly is captivating especially the early part of the book which talks about her young life helping her father run his safari business and love story of meeting, falling in love with and ultimately marrying filmmaker Alan Root, and their many adventures in the bush. Joan was brave and had an uncanny way with and love of all animals. The later part of this book, true to Joan's life, is a tragic story of lost love, deception, corruption and ultimately... murder.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Root was an extraordinary woman who was way ahead of her time. The story of her life was adventurous and heartbreaking, and I was pissed off for about 50% of the book. Her husband Alan was a HUGE asshole, and all I gathered from the book was that his wandering dick is what indirectly caused her untimely death. He left her alone in Africa to chase tail after she'd single-handedly launched his career and was unflaggingly faithful to him for 30 years.

Like seriously, I can't even believe what an incredible douche he was. I feel sorry that she held on to love for that scumbag for so many years after he left her for a younger woman. In modern terms, imagine that Steve Irwin cheated on Terry Irwin all the time, and then left her for some young girl and then because she was alone in a dangerous country, Terry got killed by aborigines while trying to conserve wildlife around her home. Complete and utter bullshit. Seriously.

[Cathy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan and Alan Root were a married couple who lead adventurous lives mostly in Africa and other parts of the world. They were famous for their wildlife films, he more than she, her shyness kept her in the background. That is the beginning of the book; the last half of the book covers mostly Joan's conservation work with the animals and Lake Naivasha and her diligent work trying to save the lake and help the migrants who were drawn to it to earn their meager living. It is both heartening and troubling for one such as Joan, who dedicated her life to the animals she loved and cared for with little help from the corruption which surrounded her. The author did a fine job, not only in his writing, but by adding personal accounts from both Joan and Alan's diaries. This should be made into a series by Netflix who should incorporate some of the original footage from their films, which I would be very eager to see.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part was awesome; the dashing Roots' idyllic, storybook early partnership in glorious wild Africa was almost unbearably atmostpheric and romantic, with all that skinnydipping in rivers, and sleeping under the stars (scorpion bite on her wedding night and all). But oh wow, that last third was a catalog of woes that was sooooo depressing, as Joan Root can't have the children she wants due to an illness that nearly paralyses her, gets left by the husband she so desperately loves, pines over the husband, waits in vain for the husband to come back, loses her career, watches as the land, animals and lake she has lived for go down the tubes due to financial and ecological disaster, gets (apparently) betrayed by the employee she has almost come to think of as a son...oh yeah, then gets shot and killed by unknown assailants with machine guns. Bummer.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildflower is the story of Joan Root. Raised in Kenya by parents who eventually started a photo safari business, she made, with her husband, Alan Root, some of the first and best-known wildlife documentaries--mainly of Africa, but also the Galapagos and other places. They traveled in the small social world of British East Africa. Theirs were the first British-produced nature films to show on American television. They led Diane Fossey up the mountain to study the gorillas they had filmed. They lived on Lake Naivasha near Joy Adamson of "Born Free" fame.

The book follows her from her childhood, through her marriage and its breakup, to her years of passionate conservation, and finally her murder in the house she loved. A fascinating story, well-written and amazingly researched by Mark Seal.

[Becki Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely engrossed in this story. The first half of the book tells us about Joan, how she grew up and her life and work with her husband Alan. I kept looking back at the cover trying to reconcile the person in the book with the woman on the cover with the shy smile. It was hard for me to put the two together. She was strong and courageous and committed yet still shy and vulnerable......such a unique combination. Even more interesting for me is the story of her efforts to save the lake she lived on and the aftermath of a big industry moving into an impoverished area. Joan worked hard to make changes by giving work and supporting the people that needed it most and yet in the end was gobbled up by that effort. Was it too small of an effort or will things never truly change?

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sped-read this when it came out because I'm a sucker for books about understanding the capacities of wild animals. It also had sexy come-ons: beautiful woman, murder, safari photography. But I thought it thin, and the mystery of this woman's life felt unresolved. I got a picture of a woman, a marriage, and of a career filming animals in the wild, but it all felt pieced together and voyeuristic. Perhaps she knew how difficult it was for people to get past her beauty to her accomplishments--she kept herself too tightly wrapped and private for this author to uncover. Still, I would rather have it than nothing at all.

[Jean]

An interesting story about Joan Thorpe Root, an American woman who grew up in Kenya, married Alan Root, a wildlife filmmaker, and became the manager of his filmmaking expeditions & business. She cared passionately about Lake Naivasha, where they had a home, and she lived there after she divorced Root. When the lake was being over-fished & drained to irrigate flower fields that became a main industry in Kenya in the late 1990's, she started an organization to protect the lake and financed a group of "patrols" to stop poachers from fishing illegally on the lake. But the patrols angered many & in 2006, Joan was killed by a group of men who stole onto her property & shot her in her bedroom.

[Ruth Hosford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so enjoyed this beautiful account of Joan Roots life in Kenya. Her marriage to Alan Root was a perfect match during their years of wildlife and photographic safaris. She was a remarkably contained character. I loved the accounts of their adventures and the stories of the injured wildlife taken into rescue and release. Their home on Lake Naivasha was a haven for most of the world’s leading wildlife photographers. The latter years though must have been hell as Kenya fell into a chasm of the usual African chaos , particularly as she was alone by then. She certainly lived an extraordinarily interesting life.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

And excellent tribute to Joan's life and her filmmaking with her husband and a very personal look at the disillusion of her marriage. There is also the wonderful and terrible description of what is happening to the land and water in Africa. It definitely made me want to read more on conservation and ecology in Africa.

The only disappointment for me was that the last part that discussed her murder and the case surrounding her murder was unsatisfying. I understand that the murder was never solved, but while the first 80% of the book was so complete, the last part was almost unfinished.

[Amy Bourret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Seal's first book provides an intriguing portrait of a fascinating woman and an informative look at Kenyan life. As important, it exposes a critical concern for conservationists, environmentalists and anyone who cares even a little for our earth and its wildlife -- the rose industry. We hear about Fair Trade coffees, teas and textiles, but how many of us think about what goes into getting those stacks of roses to supermarkets? Sometimes a rose isn't just a rose. Oh, and WILDFLOWER is a well researched and well written good read to boot.

[David Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are so fortunate that Joan Root was able to live the life she desired. I have seen their four films: The Wildbeast Imgration, Termite Mounds, Baobab Tree, and Ballooning over Mount Kilimanjaro. At least the next generation will have them. One can not miss something that they have not know.
Such a tragic ending to a battle that is impossible to win.
I think of the Mayan cities lost in the jungle and believe maybe the best way to handle over population is to let it destroy itself and let nature reclaim it.
An incredible woman and would have loved to have met her.

[Redheadedsusie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a fascinating book. I was absolutely in awe of this woman, so interesting and such courage. I could not understand why she couldn't cut the two timing husband loose. She was really the brains behind the documentaries that she did with her husband Alan. also, a good look at the corruption and poverty in Africa. If you like adventure novels, you will like this book.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard the author interviewed on NPR and decided to read about this extraordinary women. I don't remmeber her death but am glad I now am aware of her and will pay more attention to conservation efforts in Africa.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with other reviewers who said the first half of the book is the strongest--true. But the story is so good, the subject of Joan Root is interesting enough to carry through a few minor imperfections. Well worth the read.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Root devoted her entire life to Kenya's wildlife. Unfortunately she spent most of that life waiting in vain for her philandering husband to return. How the rise of Kenya's flower industry around Lake Naivasha affected the ecology of the area was of great interest.