Folks,

I thought many of you might like to know that I got word this morning that Brian Nicholson passed away yesterday.

Brian laid out the hunting blocks in the Selous, had a wonderful track record of hunting in East Africa and also wrote the book 'The Last Of Old Africa'

Here's a review of the book.

"The Last of Old Africa chronicles Nicholson’s career during the heyday of the East African safari. It tells of his years growing up on a farm in Kenya in pre-WW II days and the exciting characters he met there as a youth: John Boyes, Allan Black, and Robert Foran of Lado ivory fame.

Nicholson tells of his efforts to eradicate cunning man-killing lions and leopards, and how in the process he became the foremost expert in this macabre field. Nicholson succeeded in killing more than 30 of these menaces over a 22-year period. Moreover, Nicholson did as much elephant-control shooting as any man alive today, and he has stories commensurate for a man of his vast experience. Read about the time a wounded marauder stood directly over Nicholson but, luckily, could not smell or see him.

Nicholson was instrumental in the formation of the Selous Reserve, Africa's biggest wildlife area, which he patrolled entirely on foot for months at a time and eventually helped open to hunting in 1965. He recounts the biggest tuskers ever shot in the Selous, including the monster elephant shot by Alice Landreth".

I never met Brian but have heard and read about him for most of my life and somehow, consider him a friend I just never got to meet.

Rest In Peace Brian. I'll be drinking a toast to 'Absent Friends' at 2100 hours this evening and I'm sure that many here will also join me when that time rolls around in their neck of the woods.