Aidan Hartley

Aiden Hartley is the Spectator's Wild Life columnist.

Wild life

18 June 2016 8:00 am

Kenya As soon as I pulled out of town, I knew I had made a mistake taking on the new…

Wild life

16 June 2016 1:00 pm

Kenya As soon as I pulled out of town, I knew I had made a mistake taking on the new…

How Nairobi gangsters would vote in the EU referendum

21 May 2016 9:00 am

   Nairobi The gangsters hadn’t heard of Brexit. ‘What is this “Breaks it”?’ they asked my friend hours after kidnapping…

Wild life

19 May 2016 1:00 pm

   Nairobi The gangsters hadn’t heard of Brexit. ‘What is this “Breaks it”?’ they asked my friend hours after kidnapping…

How do we save the elephant? It’s simple: eat them

23 April 2016 9:00 am

   Laikipia I sip my Tusker beer on the veranda, staring at the elephant. He’s not the elephant in the…

Wild life

21 April 2016 1:00 pm

   Laikipia I sip my Tusker beer on the veranda, staring at the elephant. He’s not the elephant in the…

South Africa’s Heart of Darkness

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Trencherman was first published in Afrikaans in 2006 and translated into English for a South African readership shortly afterwards, but…

I’ve put a fence up around my farm, but it doesn’t keep the wildlife out

26 March 2016 9:00 am

Laikipia ‘Awayoo,’ was how our head stockman Apurra said ‘how are you?’ in his texts from Pokot country, where I…

Wild life

23 March 2016 3:00 pm

Laikipia ‘Awayoo,’ was how our head stockman Apurra said ‘how are you?’ in his texts from Pokot country, where I…

The marabou defecation was so voluminous that the sapeur was beyond salvation

13 February 2016 9:00 am

Nairobi Nairobi’s old avenues were designed to be wide enough for a wagon and several span of oxen to U-turn…

Wild life

11 February 2016 3:00 pm

Nairobi Nairobi’s old avenues were designed to be wide enough for a wagon and several span of oxen to U-turn…

Red sky of warning: Elephants and Cape buffaloes cross the Luangwa River

The Luangwa is far from being a happy valley

30 January 2016 9:00 am

Simon Barnes opens with a presumably true idea, that we are all in search of our own versions of paradise…

A close encounter with a puff adder

16 January 2016 9:00 am

On New Year’s Day I took the family out for an evening walk on the ranch. Along the verges, lush…

Wild life

14 January 2016 3:00 pm

On New Year’s Day I took the family out for an evening walk on the ranch. Along the verges, lush…

The James Herriot of Africa

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Great Rift Valley The mare hangs her head; her neck is swollen, her eyes bloody red, crammed by flies. She…

The James Herriot of Africa

10 December 2015 3:00 pm

Great Rift Valley The mare hangs her head; her neck is swollen, her eyes bloody red, crammed by flies. She…

The Kenyan night is like a busy shipping lane, but silent

21 November 2015 9:00 am

Night falls like a fire curtain at seven and I go to bed not long afterwards, serenaded by bullfrogs after…

The Kenyan night is like a busy shipping lane, but silent

19 November 2015 3:00 pm

Night falls like a fire curtain at seven and I go to bed not long afterwards, serenaded by bullfrogs after…

What Ryszard Kapuscinski airbrushed out of his bestselling book

24 October 2015 9:00 am

I once found myself on a lonely road in southern Ethiopia with the famous Polish author Ryszard Kapuscinski. We were…

What Ryszard Kapuscinski airbrushed out of his bestselling book

22 October 2015 2:00 pm

I once found myself on a lonely road in southern Ethiopia with the famous Polish author Ryszard Kapuscinski. We were…

I know what the Piers Gaveston Society really did with pig’s heads

26 September 2015 8:00 am

Memories of partying with the notorious Piers Gaveston Society at Oxford

I was petrified of the power of the Great Monition, the most terrifying curse of them all

26 September 2015 8:00 am

   Laikipia A lion has just mauled and partially eaten a warrior who tried to throw a spear in my…

Wild life

24 September 2015 1:00 pm

   Laikipia A lion has just mauled and partially eaten a warrior who tried to throw a spear in my…

Africa is no longer the land of elephants

29 August 2015 9:00 am

Laikipia An elephant can break through an electric fence by pulling out the posts, pushing younger, more stupid animals into…

Man’s greed and gain

27 August 2015 1:00 pm

Laikipia An elephant can break through an electric fence by pulling out the posts, pushing younger, more stupid animals into…