Aidan Hartley

Aiden Hartley is the Spectator's Wild Life columnist.

Oxfam’s troubles began when it became politically correct

24 February 2018 9:00 am

In the early 1980s when I was a schoolboy, my father, Brian Hartley, worked for Oxfam during a famine in…

Cold Comfort Farm comes to Kenya

10 February 2018 9:00 am

Laikipia I woke with the breath of a leopard a few feet from me as I lay in my bed.…

How to bee-proof yourself

13 January 2018 9:00 am

Kenya  First comes a distant hum, rising in volume until I hear it coming straight at me like Niki Lauda…

Aidan Hartley: A plague of ravenous zebras

16 December 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia, Kenya   The zebra lacks a rumen and eats at least twice as much as a cow. On our…

Why Kenya matters

4 November 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia   Flying home across Laikipia’s ranchlands with Martin after a farmers’ meeting, I see the plateau dotted with cattle…

Wild life

7 October 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia Ripping up the black cotton soil on the farm’s high savannah I get a sense of what it must…

‘Kill! Kill!’ yelled the mob

2 September 2017 9:00 am

 Laikipia, Kenya Following Kenya’s recently concluded elections, I took a walk on my Laikipia farm and lit up a cigar,…

Wild life

26 August 2017 9:00 am

Indian Ocean coast Like most men I wonder if I have been much good as a father, but one thing…

Wild life

29 July 2017 9:00 am

Kenya   We are on the beach, where our home is full of dystopian stories. My daughter Eve is whizzing…

Wild life

1 July 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia, Kenya   During our evening walk on the farm, Claire kept looking around nervously instead of engaging in conversation.…

Wild life

3 June 2017 9:00 am

The guests at my brother-in-law Rick’s 70th birthday lunch party were distinguished, silver-haired, well heeled. Long before Rick rescued the…

Wild life

6 May 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia, Kenya On my way home to the ranch, I stopped for a beer with my neighbour Martin. It was…

The lords of poverty

29 April 2017 9:00 am

 Kenya I met Dr Tom Catena in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains — the site of an African war and famine few…

Wild life

8 April 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia, Kenya   For weeks the farm has been in the eye of a storm, with violence swirling all around…

Wild life

11 March 2017 9:00 am

Laikipia On Tristan Voorspuy’s hell-for-leather riding safaris across Kenya’s savannah, he cracked a bullwhip at predators that tried to eat…

Wild life

9 March 2017 3:00 pm

Laikipia On Tristan Voorspuy’s hell-for-leather riding safaris across Kenya’s savannah, he cracked a bullwhip at predators that tried to eat…

Wild life

11 February 2017 9:00 am

 Laikipia plateau, Kenya My great-grandpa Ernest Wise was an engineer who sailed to South Africa towards the end of the…

Wild life

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

 Laikipia plateau, Kenya My great-grandpa Ernest Wise was an engineer who sailed to South Africa towards the end of the…

Wild life

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

 Laikipia plateau, Kenya My great-grandpa Ernest Wise was an engineer who sailed to South Africa towards the end of the…

Wild life

14 January 2017 9:00 am

We had my parents-in-law Gerry and Jean to stay with us on the farm over Christmas and being in a…

Wild life

12 January 2017 3:00 pm

We had my parents-in-law Gerry and Jean to stay with us on the farm over Christmas and being in a…

Wild life

10 December 2016 9:00 am

 Kenya I realised I had fallen from grace when we were dropped from the Queen’s birthday party guest list at…

Wild life

8 December 2016 3:00 pm

 Kenya I realised I had fallen from grace when we were dropped from the Queen’s birthday party guest list at…

Wild life

19 November 2016 9:00 am

 Aero Club of East Africa   The world looked so clean and untroubled during the flight in Bob’s light aircraft…

Wild life

17 November 2016 3:00 pm

 Aero Club of East Africa   The world looked so clean and untroubled during the flight in Bob’s light aircraft…