Sun, Sand & Snakes.

New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1979. First Edition. Octavo, gold boards (hardcover), gilt letters, 254 pp. Near-Fine, with light foxing (age darkened spotting) in a Fine, mylar protected dust jacket. From dust jacket: Stephen Spawls, an English boy living in Kenya, caught his first snake with a home-made press tick when he was 13. He found it beautiful and took it to the Nairobi Snake Park for identification. Since that time he has never stopped capturing snakes, or finding them attractive. Black mambas, spitting cobras, deadly puff-adders and giants pythons have gone into his bag, as well as the less alarming varieites. They have continued their lives in his private collection, in the Nairobi Snake Park, or in zoos in all parts of the world. Being a snakeman involves Spawls in constant danger and in situations which call for both courage and caution. At one moment he is shinning up a tree to investigate a bee-hive, when out pops a black mamba; at another he is sinking into quicksand while pursuing a crocodile; or he is overtaken by a sand storm with only his snake bag to protect him; or walking alone at night through the bush being watched attentively by a reputedly man-eating lion. He has not come unscathed through these encounters, but his enthusiasm is undiminished. Apart from high adventure, the book is full of information about East African snakes, their habitats and habits, and with do’s and don’ts for those who meet them by choice or chance. (Inventory #: 61342bd)