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Leopard in My Lap
Excerpt from Leopard in My Lap
I was often in trouble. My love of animals was so intense that I used to lure our neighbors' pets into our garden and there hold a sort of zoological court. The proceedings were not always happy. Cats, I discovered, were not compatible With birds, so I had to have cat days and bird days. Sometimes I had insect days - much to the discomfort of my mother who disliked insects as well as spiders and snakes; and snakes were what I wanted more than anything - except lions!
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
I was often in trouble. My love of animals was so intense that I used to lure our neighbors' pets into our garden and there hold a sort of zoological court. The proceedings were not always happy. Cats, I discovered, were not compatible With birds, so I had to have cat days and bird days. Sometimes I had insect days - much to the discomfort of my mother who disliked insects as well as spiders and snakes; and snakes were what I wanted more than anything - except lions!
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
- GenresNonfiction
284 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Michaela Denis
8 booksBorn Michaela Holdsworth.
Wife of wildlife photographer and documentary film-maker Armand Denis
Wife of wildlife photographer and documentary film-maker Armand Denis
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June 5, 2025
In 1954, just a year before Leopard in my Lap was first published, the BBC commissioned a pioneering TV programme called “Filming Wild Animals”. Armand Denis was already one of the world’s foremost wildlife photographers, and this series shot his new wife Michaela to fame too. Michaela was the presenter and Armand narrated. Beginning as a mere 15 minute slot, it proved to be very popular, and was soon extended to 30 minutes, and was followed by other series: “On Safari”, “Safari to Asia” and “Armand and Michaela Denis”.
There is no doubt that Michaela was responsible for much of the programme’s success. The camera loved her, and the public were fascinated with this lively, glamorous young woman who dressed in men’s shirts, khaki trousers and strong boots, but always had a pristine, immaculate appearance sporting daring 1950s make-up and with not a blonde curl out of place. Dull, rainy post-war Britain had never seen the like. She seemed as exciting and exotic as any birds of paradise the programmes might feature. Whether being charged by a hippopotamus, nearly strangled by a python, bitten by baboons or charged by wild rhinos, she never lost her perfect poise. The couple even netted a hundred snapping crocodiles, transporting them in a lorry for a friend who wanted to start a farm. Michaela joined in, as game as anyone, even though the entire group of crocodiles had to be set free when their friend said his permit had been turned down. (The crocodiles did not appreciate this, and seemed if anything, even more aggravated on release.) Cannily, her appearance became her trademark, so Michaela was shown applying lipstick or combing her hair. This time she commented that she could not possibly get into the water with crocodiles until she had put on her eyebrow pencil.
Michaela Holdsworth was born in 1914 in London, and brought up by her Russian mother. Her father was an archaeologist, but he was killed in the 1st World War when she was just 3 months old. She trained as a dress designer in Paris, and returned to London during the 2nd World War. In 1948, when working in New York as a dress designer and model, Michaela met Armand Denis, a Belgian adventurer and film-maker.
Good wildlife film photography was still rare and special, and the black and white programmes were in demand for a long time. I vividly remember the couple’s exciting wildlife documentaries being repeated on television in the 1960s. Armand with his heavy accent, and Michaela with her enthusiasm and film-star looks dashing across the Serengeti National Park in their Land Rover made for irresistibly entertaining documentaries. Open-mouthed we watched the thousands of zebras and wildebeest; an annual migration of huge herds of animals. Or the rush of wildebeest, as they attempted to cross the road before the approaching Land Rover. Memories like these are partly responsible for my lifelong love of wildlife. I chuckled at the antics of Minnie the mongoose and Bertram the bush-baby, favourite “pets” of Michaela and Armand’s, among so many abandoned or given to them by children who knew that “Memsahib Michaela love[d] all animals”.
I was aware though of my parents’ slight disapproval, and how they were more enthusiastic about the programmes with the French diver Jacques Cousteau, or Hans and Lotte Hass (although there were dark mutterings too about this “First Lady of Diving” - the first to dive in the Red Sea - having been a model and marrying the Austrian biologist a mere few months after his divorce from an actress.)
The same sort of scandal now seemed to be attached to Armand Denis. I learned of the wildlife films in the cinema made with his first wife Leila Roosevelt (a first cousin twice-removed of Theodore Roosevelt). They travelled to the (then) Belgian Congo with the cinematographer Leroy G. Phelps, to record sound film material suitable for use in African movies. Over the years Armand and Leila had recorded a wide variety of footage, including the first film of the music and dances of the Mangbetu and Tutsi (Watusi) peoples. The two had also gone on to have four children.
Despite this, Armand began a very public affair with Michaela, who was already engaged to an American admiral. Armand and Leila divorced soon after. It seemed almost uncanny, that two of the handful of existing professional wildlife photographers would each divorce their wives and marry young women involved in work which happened to rely on their appearance, at the same time.
Of course Michaela does not mention any of this in her book. She comes across as personable and charming, having a unique way with both animals and people, who all seem to come under her spell. The alarm bells began to ring a little when she describes how in love with Africa she had been all her life, reading travel books avidly. As a child she would adopt wild animals, taking home any injured waifs and strays she found, and “hold court” as she said, with them. “My Heart has always been in Africa” she insists, all through the book.
It was hard to quash the feeling that when Michaela met Armand Denis - a very ordinary-looking chap with a wife and four children - at that New York party, and claimed to instantly fall head over heels in love with him, it was not so much the man himself, as the idea of Africa she was in love with.
And yet … Michaela writes very well, and evidently knew how to present herself the way she wished people to see her. You can tell by the cover that she had a very artificial appearance, saying that she always wanted to appear glamorous. She took along her trademark bright red lipstick and other cosmetics to give to the women she would meet. Smiling broadly, with her stunning looks and extraordinary colour of hair (many remote tribes had never seen white skin never mind blonde hair) she found offering these would often result in acceptance and instant friendships. One photo shows both Michaela and a native woman laughing as they apply their war paint. She knew how to get what she wanted.
Michaela accompanied Armand on an expedition to South America: the Andes, as his secretary. She tells a romantic story about how he had proposed to her - to her great surprise - under the stars. Bolivia at the time was in the middle of a civil war, but of course everyone forgot this. They were wreathed in smiles and helped the romantic pair to have their wedding in Potosi, the highest city in the world, on the “mountain of silver”. Michaela's alarm clock accidentally went off like a time-bomb:
“I had packed it in a hurry, between a dried head and an ancient hand-axe, wrapped in my undies, but I’d forgotten to switch off the alarm”
and the registrar had no trousers on under his desk. Then two days later they were arrested during a revolution, but again managed to talk their way out of it ... no wonder the Argentinian officials had been very uneasy about them going to Bolivia.
The 1955 blurb for Leopard in My Lap says: “We know Michaela Denis largely from her continuing television work …” But she had made detailed notes on their travels, and this book is the result. It also proved to be the first volume of her autobiography. In it Michaela describes the 7 expeditions across the world the couple had made since 1948 in 15 chapters. There are 81 monochrome photos and 5 colour ones (but no maps) in inserted sections, which was routine for publishing at the time. These are astonishing photographs by a skilled professional, and show close-ups of diverse peoples, many of whom were remote at the time, and some from tribes who have died out since. In this it is a unique anthropological record, with detailed authentic facts. Even though, or perhaps because, it was published over 80 years ago it is well worth reading.
Of course many of these countries were known by different names, and had various colonial administrations. For example, the “French Equatorial Africa” of this book, is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (in Central Africa). Michaela and Armand went to the capital Brazzaville, and then on to Oka. Armand had spent 8 months there in 1942 filming gorillas, so he knew the village well.
Michaela met the Ubangi, whose females traditionally stretched both upper and lower lips gradually by means of an inserted disc, (the so-called “duck-billed women” of the chapter’s title) to achieve beauty of spirit. Not everyone on their travels welcomed outsiders, but here Michaela describes a ceremony she felt particularly privileged to be a part of. In another village Michaela made many friends, and learned the tribal dances so well that she was completely accepted. She asked if an old woman known as a sorceress was a “Mchout” (a witch doctor) but was told she was a Muganga - also a witch doctor but not associated with evil practices. This sorceress invited her to engage in a nighttime secret female tribal ritual, which seemed to involve a certain amount of hypnosis and trance, and Michaela was sure she was given “power”:
“The power draws animals to me by banishing all my fears in their presence. Of this I am absolutely convinced. To many who have asked me the secret of my understanding with animals, I have answered “Love”. But it is love fortified by the power...
This is the way of all spiritual illumination, whatever religious shape it may take. The Sorceress Dance is but one ceremony to extend the power through initiates. But there is a link between it and all other forms of transcendent experience.
A new religion? No, the oldest in the world, I believe.”
Michaela has said she always believed she had psychic powers, and mystical practises in various countries are mentioned in this book. Later she ran spiritual healing clinics in Nairobi, where they had made their home. She was well regarded and it seems as if this experience provided some of the foundation.
They moved to the “Belgian Congo” - now also the Democratic Republic of the Congo - and the Asongo-Meno people. These were reputed to be an artistically gifted people of great beauty, and the couple had been given to understand that these people lived under an enlightened administration. This is an upsetting part of the book, as the missionaries they were to stay with had been replaced by a couple with bigoted views, Mr and Mrs Warren. They had forced the people to shave their heads and imposed Western dress on them, or as the missionaries said “to dress decently like Christians”. Worst of all, they had demanded that the many artefacts: masks and carvings hundreds of years old, be brought to them and burned. When Michaela said they had destroyed priceless Art treasures, Mr Warren was genuinely puzzled, and said that they were all pagan, “the whole lot of them”.
They lodged a complaint with the chief administrator at Luluabourg who used some fairly choice expletives about these two “imbeciles”, and the previous missionaries were also horrified and “shocked at the news; for they had a genuine love and respect for the natives; and the natives loved them in return”.
Michaela has her own thoughts about this:
“… how much better it would be if missionaries were given some sort of training in art and cultural matters before being sent out to the so-called backward areas. Every missionary, I thought, ought to have a least an elementary knowledge of native art and archaeology which would enable him to appreciate and preserve the works of native genius. How much richer the world would be in art treasures if it were so.”
She comments just as frankly on other administrators she met; minor officials in remote areas of the Belgian Congo who smelled of whisky and were surrounded by chaos. She believed these were left over from an earlier time when it was hard to recruit anyone. More recent appointments were young officials, highly trained in the Belgian Congo University, hardworking and idealistic. They met far more of those … but over 80 years later this administration, and even some of her own attitudes, are confined to history.
Eventually Michaela and Armand managed to see:
“Asongo-Menos living unmolested in their original state.
The serenity was profound, the peace almost tangible. This was Africa as it must have been centuries ago. The beauty of these people almost took my breath away. Here was primitive innocence, unstained by the squalid prohibitions of a guilt-ridden civilisation.”
In 1950, when they had been married for 2 years, they went to Machakos in Kenya, to work on the feature film, “King Solomon’s Mines”, in order to finance their independent work. Armand was MGM’s technical adviser, and Michaela was persuaded to act as Deborah Kerr’s double. This proved traumatic for them both, as they had not appreciated that the film would include the unnecessary shooting of a charging bull elephant. Neither Armand nor Michaela ever shot or killed an animal in all their work, nor even carried a lethal weapon at any time. This was against their deepest principles, but they could not get out of their contract. Armand also described this episode in his book “On Safari”. It caused them both a lot of anguish.
Their association with “King Solomon’s Mines” was disastrous for other reasons. Michaela spent hours on the sets sopping wet, and became very ill with pneumonia. Then after filming at Murchinson’s Falls in Uganda, she had a car accident with severe facial injuries, and had to go to Sussex, England for plastic surgery.
Soon they were to build their dream home in Langatta, in Nairobi, Kenya, where Michaela was to live for the rest of her life until she was 88. But even this exciting time came with a painful loss. Despite Armand’s advice, Michaela always travelled with her jewel case. She did not want to be separated from it, as the jewels had sentimental value for her. They were unique Russian pieces, inherited from her mother, and they were priceless, but uninsured.
On looking over the half completed house, she put the box down somewhere, and only remembered when she got back to the hotel. Armand persuaded her that it could be retrieved the next day, not realising exactly what it contained. Of course it had gone. They went to the police, but were shocked at the huge file brought out containing hundreds of known fences in the Nairobi area. The police were sorry, but tracing the jewels was hopeless. They would have been out of the country within hours.
Michaela tells us that this is the only time she ever consulted a witch doctor. She describes what happened; the ritual and questions, and how the woman said she had put a curse on the culprit. Over the next days and weeks, a man in their employ became very weak and ill, and even broke his leg in a fall from a roof. His wife begged Michaela to lift the curse, or he would die. He admitted taking the jewels and wished he could give them back, but he could not divulge the names of those he had given them to or they would kill him and his family.
Michaela writes that she does not understand these powers, but she was sure that she held this man’s life in her hands. However precious to her, no jewellery was worth that, so she asked the witch doctor to remove the curse, and the episode was finished.
Their next safari was to cross Africa from East to West, from Mombasa (Kenya) to Matadi (the Congo). This was followed by a job filming lions in the Maasai Mara; the Southern Game Reserve in Kenya, for the film, “Below the Sahara” meeting a Game Warden, Major Evelyn Wood Temple-Borham. They then moved to Uganda to film elephants, buffalo, crocodiles and hippos. (This is where they were charged by elephants.)
Then they flew to the Papua New Guinea Highlands, to film birds of paradise and meet the Chimbu (now Simbu) people. Here it was the men who bedecked themselves with coloured feathers, feeling an affinity with the birds of paradise. This was another time when Michaela immersed herself with the native people, who befriended her and demonstrated their traditions. To Europeans, the small beads inserted under the skin forming an intricate pattern over time seems a stoic body mutilation, but for the Chimbu it was beautiful. Their body tattoos, as in various parts of the world, had the same desired effect. Westerners have their own “improvements” with tattooing, lip plumping and breast augmenting, to name a few procedures. Seen as beautiful by some, to others they are merely absurd.
Here Michaela and Armand met a priest they thought was much more progressive, who allowed the people to adopt Western ways if they wished, in their own time. Oddly, they would sing the Western hymn tunes but in their own tongue. I was not convinced by this, despite their comparative happiness. Personally I thought Michaela had a point when she watched a young girl who gorgeously beaded, be-shelled and painted, crossed herself as she passed a crucifix, and commented to him: “Crossing herself merely means a sign of appeasement to a strange god”. How can anyone know that others have not simply changed one superstitious belief in a god to a different one? I was very sad when I could find no record of these tribal people’s traditions in the Simbu, and hope I am wrong and that they were not wiped out.
Northern Australia was their next stop, although they found the heat debilitating, and were plagued by sand flies and mosquitoes. They lived for a time with the Australian Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, and after seeing Yule Island they filmed on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland.
Finally they returned to their home in Nairobi, Kenya and Michaela devotes a chapter to the wild pets she adopted, such as a bat-eared fox, a chameleon, a mongoose, a bush baby, a leopard, 2 cheetah brothers and a New Guinea green snake.
Although it is clear all through the book that Michaela regarded Armand as her soulmate, sadly he was to die in 1971. In 1975, she married her lawyer, Sir William O’Brien Lindsay, but he died in his sleep 3 months later. Michaela ran her spiritual healing groups and dealt in property in Kenya, staying in Nairobi until her death at 88, in 2003. Africa had been her true love after all, as she always said.
This is a necessarily sketchy overview of a book which is sadly neglected now. At the time it would have been a 5 star book. Although not often remembered today, Armand and Michaela Denis played a crucial role in conservation, and were a continuing influence on all the nature documentaries which were to follow. I first read Leopard in my Lap 25 - 30 years after it had been published, enjoying it immensely. On my second reading, I still rate it at 4 stars.
There is no doubt that Michaela was responsible for much of the programme’s success. The camera loved her, and the public were fascinated with this lively, glamorous young woman who dressed in men’s shirts, khaki trousers and strong boots, but always had a pristine, immaculate appearance sporting daring 1950s make-up and with not a blonde curl out of place. Dull, rainy post-war Britain had never seen the like. She seemed as exciting and exotic as any birds of paradise the programmes might feature. Whether being charged by a hippopotamus, nearly strangled by a python, bitten by baboons or charged by wild rhinos, she never lost her perfect poise. The couple even netted a hundred snapping crocodiles, transporting them in a lorry for a friend who wanted to start a farm. Michaela joined in, as game as anyone, even though the entire group of crocodiles had to be set free when their friend said his permit had been turned down. (The crocodiles did not appreciate this, and seemed if anything, even more aggravated on release.) Cannily, her appearance became her trademark, so Michaela was shown applying lipstick or combing her hair. This time she commented that she could not possibly get into the water with crocodiles until she had put on her eyebrow pencil.
Michaela Holdsworth was born in 1914 in London, and brought up by her Russian mother. Her father was an archaeologist, but he was killed in the 1st World War when she was just 3 months old. She trained as a dress designer in Paris, and returned to London during the 2nd World War. In 1948, when working in New York as a dress designer and model, Michaela met Armand Denis, a Belgian adventurer and film-maker.
Good wildlife film photography was still rare and special, and the black and white programmes were in demand for a long time. I vividly remember the couple’s exciting wildlife documentaries being repeated on television in the 1960s. Armand with his heavy accent, and Michaela with her enthusiasm and film-star looks dashing across the Serengeti National Park in their Land Rover made for irresistibly entertaining documentaries. Open-mouthed we watched the thousands of zebras and wildebeest; an annual migration of huge herds of animals. Or the rush of wildebeest, as they attempted to cross the road before the approaching Land Rover. Memories like these are partly responsible for my lifelong love of wildlife. I chuckled at the antics of Minnie the mongoose and Bertram the bush-baby, favourite “pets” of Michaela and Armand’s, among so many abandoned or given to them by children who knew that “Memsahib Michaela love[d] all animals”.
I was aware though of my parents’ slight disapproval, and how they were more enthusiastic about the programmes with the French diver Jacques Cousteau, or Hans and Lotte Hass (although there were dark mutterings too about this “First Lady of Diving” - the first to dive in the Red Sea - having been a model and marrying the Austrian biologist a mere few months after his divorce from an actress.)
The same sort of scandal now seemed to be attached to Armand Denis. I learned of the wildlife films in the cinema made with his first wife Leila Roosevelt (a first cousin twice-removed of Theodore Roosevelt). They travelled to the (then) Belgian Congo with the cinematographer Leroy G. Phelps, to record sound film material suitable for use in African movies. Over the years Armand and Leila had recorded a wide variety of footage, including the first film of the music and dances of the Mangbetu and Tutsi (Watusi) peoples. The two had also gone on to have four children.
Despite this, Armand began a very public affair with Michaela, who was already engaged to an American admiral. Armand and Leila divorced soon after. It seemed almost uncanny, that two of the handful of existing professional wildlife photographers would each divorce their wives and marry young women involved in work which happened to rely on their appearance, at the same time.
Of course Michaela does not mention any of this in her book. She comes across as personable and charming, having a unique way with both animals and people, who all seem to come under her spell. The alarm bells began to ring a little when she describes how in love with Africa she had been all her life, reading travel books avidly. As a child she would adopt wild animals, taking home any injured waifs and strays she found, and “hold court” as she said, with them. “My Heart has always been in Africa” she insists, all through the book.
It was hard to quash the feeling that when Michaela met Armand Denis - a very ordinary-looking chap with a wife and four children - at that New York party, and claimed to instantly fall head over heels in love with him, it was not so much the man himself, as the idea of Africa she was in love with.
And yet … Michaela writes very well, and evidently knew how to present herself the way she wished people to see her. You can tell by the cover that she had a very artificial appearance, saying that she always wanted to appear glamorous. She took along her trademark bright red lipstick and other cosmetics to give to the women she would meet. Smiling broadly, with her stunning looks and extraordinary colour of hair (many remote tribes had never seen white skin never mind blonde hair) she found offering these would often result in acceptance and instant friendships. One photo shows both Michaela and a native woman laughing as they apply their war paint. She knew how to get what she wanted.
Michaela accompanied Armand on an expedition to South America: the Andes, as his secretary. She tells a romantic story about how he had proposed to her - to her great surprise - under the stars. Bolivia at the time was in the middle of a civil war, but of course everyone forgot this. They were wreathed in smiles and helped the romantic pair to have their wedding in Potosi, the highest city in the world, on the “mountain of silver”. Michaela's alarm clock accidentally went off like a time-bomb:
“I had packed it in a hurry, between a dried head and an ancient hand-axe, wrapped in my undies, but I’d forgotten to switch off the alarm”
and the registrar had no trousers on under his desk. Then two days later they were arrested during a revolution, but again managed to talk their way out of it ... no wonder the Argentinian officials had been very uneasy about them going to Bolivia.
The 1955 blurb for Leopard in My Lap says: “We know Michaela Denis largely from her continuing television work …” But she had made detailed notes on their travels, and this book is the result. It also proved to be the first volume of her autobiography. In it Michaela describes the 7 expeditions across the world the couple had made since 1948 in 15 chapters. There are 81 monochrome photos and 5 colour ones (but no maps) in inserted sections, which was routine for publishing at the time. These are astonishing photographs by a skilled professional, and show close-ups of diverse peoples, many of whom were remote at the time, and some from tribes who have died out since. In this it is a unique anthropological record, with detailed authentic facts. Even though, or perhaps because, it was published over 80 years ago it is well worth reading.
Of course many of these countries were known by different names, and had various colonial administrations. For example, the “French Equatorial Africa” of this book, is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (in Central Africa). Michaela and Armand went to the capital Brazzaville, and then on to Oka. Armand had spent 8 months there in 1942 filming gorillas, so he knew the village well.
Michaela met the Ubangi, whose females traditionally stretched both upper and lower lips gradually by means of an inserted disc, (the so-called “duck-billed women” of the chapter’s title) to achieve beauty of spirit. Not everyone on their travels welcomed outsiders, but here Michaela describes a ceremony she felt particularly privileged to be a part of. In another village Michaela made many friends, and learned the tribal dances so well that she was completely accepted. She asked if an old woman known as a sorceress was a “Mchout” (a witch doctor) but was told she was a Muganga - also a witch doctor but not associated with evil practices. This sorceress invited her to engage in a nighttime secret female tribal ritual, which seemed to involve a certain amount of hypnosis and trance, and Michaela was sure she was given “power”:
“The power draws animals to me by banishing all my fears in their presence. Of this I am absolutely convinced. To many who have asked me the secret of my understanding with animals, I have answered “Love”. But it is love fortified by the power...
This is the way of all spiritual illumination, whatever religious shape it may take. The Sorceress Dance is but one ceremony to extend the power through initiates. But there is a link between it and all other forms of transcendent experience.
A new religion? No, the oldest in the world, I believe.”
Michaela has said she always believed she had psychic powers, and mystical practises in various countries are mentioned in this book. Later she ran spiritual healing clinics in Nairobi, where they had made their home. She was well regarded and it seems as if this experience provided some of the foundation.
They moved to the “Belgian Congo” - now also the Democratic Republic of the Congo - and the Asongo-Meno people. These were reputed to be an artistically gifted people of great beauty, and the couple had been given to understand that these people lived under an enlightened administration. This is an upsetting part of the book, as the missionaries they were to stay with had been replaced by a couple with bigoted views, Mr and Mrs Warren. They had forced the people to shave their heads and imposed Western dress on them, or as the missionaries said “to dress decently like Christians”. Worst of all, they had demanded that the many artefacts: masks and carvings hundreds of years old, be brought to them and burned. When Michaela said they had destroyed priceless Art treasures, Mr Warren was genuinely puzzled, and said that they were all pagan, “the whole lot of them”.
They lodged a complaint with the chief administrator at Luluabourg who used some fairly choice expletives about these two “imbeciles”, and the previous missionaries were also horrified and “shocked at the news; for they had a genuine love and respect for the natives; and the natives loved them in return”.
Michaela has her own thoughts about this:
“… how much better it would be if missionaries were given some sort of training in art and cultural matters before being sent out to the so-called backward areas. Every missionary, I thought, ought to have a least an elementary knowledge of native art and archaeology which would enable him to appreciate and preserve the works of native genius. How much richer the world would be in art treasures if it were so.”
She comments just as frankly on other administrators she met; minor officials in remote areas of the Belgian Congo who smelled of whisky and were surrounded by chaos. She believed these were left over from an earlier time when it was hard to recruit anyone. More recent appointments were young officials, highly trained in the Belgian Congo University, hardworking and idealistic. They met far more of those … but over 80 years later this administration, and even some of her own attitudes, are confined to history.
Eventually Michaela and Armand managed to see:
“Asongo-Menos living unmolested in their original state.
The serenity was profound, the peace almost tangible. This was Africa as it must have been centuries ago. The beauty of these people almost took my breath away. Here was primitive innocence, unstained by the squalid prohibitions of a guilt-ridden civilisation.”
In 1950, when they had been married for 2 years, they went to Machakos in Kenya, to work on the feature film, “King Solomon’s Mines”, in order to finance their independent work. Armand was MGM’s technical adviser, and Michaela was persuaded to act as Deborah Kerr’s double. This proved traumatic for them both, as they had not appreciated that the film would include the unnecessary shooting of a charging bull elephant. Neither Armand nor Michaela ever shot or killed an animal in all their work, nor even carried a lethal weapon at any time. This was against their deepest principles, but they could not get out of their contract. Armand also described this episode in his book “On Safari”. It caused them both a lot of anguish.
Their association with “King Solomon’s Mines” was disastrous for other reasons. Michaela spent hours on the sets sopping wet, and became very ill with pneumonia. Then after filming at Murchinson’s Falls in Uganda, she had a car accident with severe facial injuries, and had to go to Sussex, England for plastic surgery.
Soon they were to build their dream home in Langatta, in Nairobi, Kenya, where Michaela was to live for the rest of her life until she was 88. But even this exciting time came with a painful loss. Despite Armand’s advice, Michaela always travelled with her jewel case. She did not want to be separated from it, as the jewels had sentimental value for her. They were unique Russian pieces, inherited from her mother, and they were priceless, but uninsured.
On looking over the half completed house, she put the box down somewhere, and only remembered when she got back to the hotel. Armand persuaded her that it could be retrieved the next day, not realising exactly what it contained. Of course it had gone. They went to the police, but were shocked at the huge file brought out containing hundreds of known fences in the Nairobi area. The police were sorry, but tracing the jewels was hopeless. They would have been out of the country within hours.
Michaela tells us that this is the only time she ever consulted a witch doctor. She describes what happened; the ritual and questions, and how the woman said she had put a curse on the culprit. Over the next days and weeks, a man in their employ became very weak and ill, and even broke his leg in a fall from a roof. His wife begged Michaela to lift the curse, or he would die. He admitted taking the jewels and wished he could give them back, but he could not divulge the names of those he had given them to or they would kill him and his family.
Michaela writes that she does not understand these powers, but she was sure that she held this man’s life in her hands. However precious to her, no jewellery was worth that, so she asked the witch doctor to remove the curse, and the episode was finished.
Their next safari was to cross Africa from East to West, from Mombasa (Kenya) to Matadi (the Congo). This was followed by a job filming lions in the Maasai Mara; the Southern Game Reserve in Kenya, for the film, “Below the Sahara” meeting a Game Warden, Major Evelyn Wood Temple-Borham. They then moved to Uganda to film elephants, buffalo, crocodiles and hippos. (This is where they were charged by elephants.)
Then they flew to the Papua New Guinea Highlands, to film birds of paradise and meet the Chimbu (now Simbu) people. Here it was the men who bedecked themselves with coloured feathers, feeling an affinity with the birds of paradise. This was another time when Michaela immersed herself with the native people, who befriended her and demonstrated their traditions. To Europeans, the small beads inserted under the skin forming an intricate pattern over time seems a stoic body mutilation, but for the Chimbu it was beautiful. Their body tattoos, as in various parts of the world, had the same desired effect. Westerners have their own “improvements” with tattooing, lip plumping and breast augmenting, to name a few procedures. Seen as beautiful by some, to others they are merely absurd.
Here Michaela and Armand met a priest they thought was much more progressive, who allowed the people to adopt Western ways if they wished, in their own time. Oddly, they would sing the Western hymn tunes but in their own tongue. I was not convinced by this, despite their comparative happiness. Personally I thought Michaela had a point when she watched a young girl who gorgeously beaded, be-shelled and painted, crossed herself as she passed a crucifix, and commented to him: “Crossing herself merely means a sign of appeasement to a strange god”. How can anyone know that others have not simply changed one superstitious belief in a god to a different one? I was very sad when I could find no record of these tribal people’s traditions in the Simbu, and hope I am wrong and that they were not wiped out.
Northern Australia was their next stop, although they found the heat debilitating, and were plagued by sand flies and mosquitoes. They lived for a time with the Australian Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, and after seeing Yule Island they filmed on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland.
Finally they returned to their home in Nairobi, Kenya and Michaela devotes a chapter to the wild pets she adopted, such as a bat-eared fox, a chameleon, a mongoose, a bush baby, a leopard, 2 cheetah brothers and a New Guinea green snake.
Although it is clear all through the book that Michaela regarded Armand as her soulmate, sadly he was to die in 1971. In 1975, she married her lawyer, Sir William O’Brien Lindsay, but he died in his sleep 3 months later. Michaela ran her spiritual healing groups and dealt in property in Kenya, staying in Nairobi until her death at 88, in 2003. Africa had been her true love after all, as she always said.
This is a necessarily sketchy overview of a book which is sadly neglected now. At the time it would have been a 5 star book. Although not often remembered today, Armand and Michaela Denis played a crucial role in conservation, and were a continuing influence on all the nature documentaries which were to follow. I first read Leopard in my Lap 25 - 30 years after it had been published, enjoying it immensely. On my second reading, I still rate it at 4 stars.
April 20, 2018
I started this book with a reflexive and inexplicable dislike of Michaela. Before picking this up, I'd never heard of her or her husband Armand, although they'd been fairly famous documentary film makers in the 1950s and 60s. She'd gone from fashion to adventuring and film-making, and perhaps it was the way she posed for pictures, carefully made up and almost as if the animals and tribal peoples she was pictured with were props. But vanity is hardly a crime! Maybe I'm a little jealous?
So I was surprised when I showed the book around to my friends and they quickly decided that Michaela was AWESOME. Pretty and adventurous.
I'd definitely come around some by the end of the book. The depictions of "primitive peoples" are definitely outdated but she and Armand genuinely cared about preserving their culture. Michaela writes in an lively and interesting manner, flitting from story to story with ease.
The book starts off describing how she and Armand med, their courtship and marriage. However, she doesn't mention the fact that he was already married, and she was engaged to somebody else, at the time this happened. Of course she wants to portray herself in the best light, and avoid bogging down a pleasant read with unpleasant memories, but it does make me wonder what else she may have left out or manipulated to show herself in a good light.
Still, a fun read. I've also picked up one of Armand's books, and it will be interesting to see how his account compares to hers.
So I was surprised when I showed the book around to my friends and they quickly decided that Michaela was AWESOME. Pretty and adventurous.
I'd definitely come around some by the end of the book. The depictions of "primitive peoples" are definitely outdated but she and Armand genuinely cared about preserving their culture. Michaela writes in an lively and interesting manner, flitting from story to story with ease.
The book starts off describing how she and Armand med, their courtship and marriage. However, she doesn't mention the fact that he was already married, and she was engaged to somebody else, at the time this happened. Of course she wants to portray herself in the best light, and avoid bogging down a pleasant read with unpleasant memories, but it does make me wonder what else she may have left out or manipulated to show herself in a good light.
Still, a fun read. I've also picked up one of Armand's books, and it will be interesting to see how his account compares to hers.
December 29, 2016
Beautiful writing, a different style to what I am used to but good nonetheless. Feminine, magical, charming and hardy. Love, dance and the eternal magic of our lives.
Similar souls.
Similar souls.
October 12, 2019
Well worth the read. I found it very interesting.
August 24, 2024
A fascinating read, but I struggled to overlook the outdated points of view.
January 6, 2025
Interesting autobiography of one who was the David Attenborough of the 1950s.
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