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Under the Camelthorn Tree: The Impact of Trauma on One Family
Kate Nicholls left England to raise her five children in Botswana: an experience that would change each of their lives. Living on a shoestring in a lion conservation camp, Kate home-schools her family while they also learn at first hand about the individual lives of wild lions. Their deep attachment to these magnificent animals is palpable.
The setting is exotic but it is also precarious. When the author is subjected to a brutal attack by three men, it threatens to destroy her and her family: post-traumatic stress turns a good mother into a woman who is fragmented and out of control.
In this powerfully written, raw and often warmly funny memoir, we witness the devastation of living with a mother whose resilience is almost broken, and how familial structures shift as the children mature and roles change. Under the CamelthornTree addresses head-on the many issues surrounding motherhood, education, independence, and the natural world; and highlights the long-lasting effect of gender violence on secondary victims. Above all, it is an inspiring account of family love, and a powerful beacon of hope for life after trauma.
296 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2019
47 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
About the author
Kate Nicholls
1 book8 followersKate Nicholls was born in London in 1954. She belongs to a theatrical family, and had a successful career as an actress, appearing on the television, at the RSC and the National Theatre. Inspired by Darwin and Dawkins, she gave up acting to study biology, and moved her family to Botswana where she worked for Women Against Rape, in Maun. A year later she began researching lions in the Okavango Delta, and raised her five children in a tented research camp. She home-schooled her four youngest children and remains passionate about wildlife conservation, gender equality and educational reform. She is currently living in Rome, where she is running Brightlights Homeschool and writing her second book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 21, 2020
4.5 stars
There is so much that I want to say about this truly marvelous book! If you’re someone that lives in Africa, if you’re someone that has Africa pumping through your veins, if you’re someone who has previously lived in Africa and now you’ve left or even if you’re someone who’s never been to Africa but you can’t wait to visit it, then please do yourselves a favour and read this book. What is it about this continent that causes our hearts to swell with love and joy, and to tear those same hearts apart the very next day?
This book is an absolute triumph. It’s written so exceptionally well and with such an easy style, almost as if the author had been writing this story all her life, penning bits here and there as they happened. She’s made telling this story seem so easy, and that’s actually not an easy thing to do at all. This is a story that’s filled with humour and had me laughing out loud one minute, and then with so much emotion that I’d be crying into my teacup the next.
This book is a memoir and it highlight’s the highs and lows and the author’s general experience of living in Botswana, having moved there in 1995 from London, taking her 5 children with her, one of which was still a baby. She moved there as a single woman, with no man by her side for company or to help her with what was sure to be a difficult transition. This alone should tell you something about the author. Yes, she’s one tough cookie, a risk taker, an adventurer, supremely independent and perhaps some may even say, a little bit crazy.
The author is an exceptionally funny woman, and her interactions with her children had me chuckling out loud on many occasions. Also, her British sense of humour was clearly on display in this book, and I so enjoyed her. But just as this book is filled with laughter and humorous moments, so too is it filled with pain and heartache. Without giving too much away, the author suffers a brutal attack at the hands of 3 men, and so this book is also one that will bring a tear to your eye. Not only does this attack have a profound impact on her life, but also on the lives of those that she loves most in the world, her children.
I just loved this honest and evocative memoir. I loved the descriptions of Africa, and the author’s passion for the bush and for the lions that she studied for so long. It really ticked all the boxes for me. A fascinating story, a glimpse into the soul of Africa, at how it can give and take back in equal measure. It’s a funny, easy going, entertaining, heart wrenching and inspiring novel. It made my heart pump a little bit faster at times, and tear a tiny bit at other times. And the only reason that I’m not awarding a solid 5 stars to this read is that for me personally, I found there were some parts of the story that hadn’t been fully closed out, fully dealt with, and I was left with one or two questions. But don’t let that deter you. This one is fantastic!
(Note: I had both the paperback edition of this book and the audiobook and for the most part, I listened to this one as an audiobook. And it was absolutely superb! The author herself narrates this story and her British accent together with the humorous nature of this book, resulted in a highly entertaining listen. The author tells this story with so much excitement and emotion that I was mesmerized. Having said that, I have a feeling that this book will be just as entertaining whether you actually read it or listen to it, because there were times when I was doing both and I can’t say that I preferred one format over the other. If I was absolutely pushed, I’d probably say try and listen to this one as an audiobook if you can. But if you can’t, don’t hesitate to grab a hard copy).
There is so much that I want to say about this truly marvelous book! If you’re someone that lives in Africa, if you’re someone that has Africa pumping through your veins, if you’re someone who has previously lived in Africa and now you’ve left or even if you’re someone who’s never been to Africa but you can’t wait to visit it, then please do yourselves a favour and read this book. What is it about this continent that causes our hearts to swell with love and joy, and to tear those same hearts apart the very next day?
This book is an absolute triumph. It’s written so exceptionally well and with such an easy style, almost as if the author had been writing this story all her life, penning bits here and there as they happened. She’s made telling this story seem so easy, and that’s actually not an easy thing to do at all. This is a story that’s filled with humour and had me laughing out loud one minute, and then with so much emotion that I’d be crying into my teacup the next.
This book is a memoir and it highlight’s the highs and lows and the author’s general experience of living in Botswana, having moved there in 1995 from London, taking her 5 children with her, one of which was still a baby. She moved there as a single woman, with no man by her side for company or to help her with what was sure to be a difficult transition. This alone should tell you something about the author. Yes, she’s one tough cookie, a risk taker, an adventurer, supremely independent and perhaps some may even say, a little bit crazy.
The author is an exceptionally funny woman, and her interactions with her children had me chuckling out loud on many occasions. Also, her British sense of humour was clearly on display in this book, and I so enjoyed her. But just as this book is filled with laughter and humorous moments, so too is it filled with pain and heartache. Without giving too much away, the author suffers a brutal attack at the hands of 3 men, and so this book is also one that will bring a tear to your eye. Not only does this attack have a profound impact on her life, but also on the lives of those that she loves most in the world, her children.
I just loved this honest and evocative memoir. I loved the descriptions of Africa, and the author’s passion for the bush and for the lions that she studied for so long. It really ticked all the boxes for me. A fascinating story, a glimpse into the soul of Africa, at how it can give and take back in equal measure. It’s a funny, easy going, entertaining, heart wrenching and inspiring novel. It made my heart pump a little bit faster at times, and tear a tiny bit at other times. And the only reason that I’m not awarding a solid 5 stars to this read is that for me personally, I found there were some parts of the story that hadn’t been fully closed out, fully dealt with, and I was left with one or two questions. But don’t let that deter you. This one is fantastic!
(Note: I had both the paperback edition of this book and the audiobook and for the most part, I listened to this one as an audiobook. And it was absolutely superb! The author herself narrates this story and her British accent together with the humorous nature of this book, resulted in a highly entertaining listen. The author tells this story with so much excitement and emotion that I was mesmerized. Having said that, I have a feeling that this book will be just as entertaining whether you actually read it or listen to it, because there were times when I was doing both and I can’t say that I preferred one format over the other. If I was absolutely pushed, I’d probably say try and listen to this one as an audiobook if you can. But if you can’t, don’t hesitate to grab a hard copy).
July 6, 2020
4.5* I admit the 'lions' in the title got my attention. But, as I started reading, I realized this book is so much more. The lions are mentioned now and again, but they are not the focus. The story revolves around Kate Nicholls, her children, and their life in Botswana in the mid-1990s. If they sound remotely familiar, it's because of The Lion Children from 2001. This is what happened after the children's book was published.
Kate Nicholls's memoir deals with rape victims in Botswana. Beginning in 1996, she and a team of others were educating the local communities about HIV/AIDS and trying to spread the word about women and children being sexually assaulted. Nicholls goes back and forth between her memories from those years - inclucing spending time studying lions - and more recent ones, when she's trying to reconnect with her children while coping with alcoholism and PTSD from being gang raped herself.
It was heart-wrenching, intimate and raw. The tears I cried while reading are my own. The pain is universal. It has to be acknowledged. I'm glad she spoke up, both for the victims of rape and sexual abuse and for the lions.
Kate Nicholls's memoir deals with rape victims in Botswana. Beginning in 1996, she and a team of others were educating the local communities about HIV/AIDS and trying to spread the word about women and children being sexually assaulted. Nicholls goes back and forth between her memories from those years - inclucing spending time studying lions - and more recent ones, when she's trying to reconnect with her children while coping with alcoholism and PTSD from being gang raped herself.
It was heart-wrenching, intimate and raw. The tears I cried while reading are my own. The pain is universal. It has to be acknowledged. I'm glad she spoke up, both for the victims of rape and sexual abuse and for the lions.
October 23, 2019
The camelthorn tree, Vachellia erioloba, more commonly known as Acacia erioloba, appears on the covers of numerous books, signaling immediately that they have an African theme. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; The Constant Gardener by John le Carré; Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway; Out of Africa by Karen Blixen; The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing; The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – the list goes on …(and on).
And now, there’s one more to add to the pile: Under the Camelthorn Tree by Kate Nicholls.
Anyone looking at this cover would be forgiven for thinking this is an African idyll. A woman walks through the bush. Her legs and arms are tanned. Her hair wafts out behind her. Red hair, the colour, almost, of the scrubby grasses at her feet. Behind, the sky is a light grey, cloudy, but not threatening. The camelthorn tree bends its boughs above her, too distant for us to see the cruel thorns that make it a prickly survivor of the African landscape. The woman is beautiful, her white skirt billows, the purple scarf at her waist adds a soft touch of colour. And just in case a box is left unticked, on the back cover there’s a Shutterstock photo of the acacia (again) outlined against the orange glow of an African sunset.
There’s a great deal of truth in the adage, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, because nothing in these images prepares you for the story Kate Nicholls shares with her readers. Tender, raw, heartwarming and visceral, Under the Camelthorn Tree will leave you elated and bruised, angry and inspired, and, above all, with a deep sense of connection to a woman who has chosen to tell her story with humour and fierce honesty.
In a short note at the beginning of Under the Camelthorn Tree, Kate explains, ‘This is not an “and I was born” memoir: It is a story told in snapshots of some events between 1994 and 2016.’
As she tells her story, those events shift between life in Botswana and her time back in London, living in a house in Comeragh Road.
The story (but not the book) begins in 1994, when Kate, at one point an actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company, decides to move from their cottage in the Cotswolds to Botswana with her five children: Emily, Travers, Angus, Maisie and baby Oakley. She has decided that:
‘Why Botswana?’ you may ask, and so does Wilson, a man who has studied biology at the University of Botswana. Kate gives him a lift to on her way to the Okavango Delta shortly after her arrival.
Before you throw your hands up in horror at the thought of a mother uprooting five children from the sheltered safety of life in the Cotswolds, read on!
Shortly after arriving in Botswana, Kate joins War Against Rape an organization which works tirelessly to promote HIV education and formulate proper procedures for victims of sexual abuse. And then, after meeting the evolutionary biologist Pieter Kat, she and the children move with him to Gomote Camp, where he is carrying out lion research. Kate is passionate about this field of research. Although she isn’t a qualified scientist, further snippets of her conversation with Wilson reveal that while her academic background may not be conventional, it certainly is solid:
Kate becomes more and more involved in lion research (and this reader feels that her work on hormones, pregnancy and reproduction might even have outstripped that of her partner if the programme hadn’t been shut down). All the while her children are bush-schooled and reading how Kate contrives to make their lessons enthralling as well as informative is an eye-opening joy. Their classroom is an open hut, their bookcase is filled with an eclectic collection of books. They know the lions Kate and Pieter study by name, they know how to drive a Land Rover and change a tyre. In 2001, The Lion Children, by Angus, Maisie and Travers McNeice is published by Orion. The foreword by Richard Dawkins, ‘I Speak of Africa and Golden Joys’ was later reprinted in 2003 in A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love, a book of selected essays and other writings. In it he describes meeting the children, saying,
Later, he goes on to talk about the children’s ‘most remarkable mother’.
But beyond the children's story of three special lions called Cabernet, Merlot and Sauvignon, as well as all the others they grew up observing, a far darker narrative is about to unfold, the story of Kate’s rape and the PTSD that follows. She describes the effects this has on her honestly, and in the hope that her story will help others to find a way forward after such devastation.
It’s not only Kate who suffers, her children do too. ‘Rape doesn’t just happen to one person,’ she says when asked to speak at the South Bank Centre, London. ‘It happens to the family too and it nearly broke mine. I learned about the secondary victims of rape because my children were. Secondary victims need to be acknowledged and given advocacy. Living with someone who has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is bewildering, challenging, dangerous and harmful.’
And so the book moves, between the story of life in the bush, living under a camelthorn tree, and this one too. How a mother tried and failed and tried again to heal.
‘Healing is a messy, Sisyphean process,’ Kate says ‘– it’s not like it is in the movies.’ The same can be said of this book. It’s not like it is in the movies, nor as it appears to be on the cover.
A Google search informed me that the camelthorn copes well in poor soils and in harsh conditions, tolerating hot summer temperatures and severe frosts. It’s a useful tree, good for firewood, fodder and medicine. It’s more susceptible to lightning strikes than other trees, possibly because it’s often the only feature of a flat landscape. And then there’s the deep shade – it spreads its canopy like a big green umbrella in an arid land. And finally, it has those thorns … vicious spikes that grow in pairs and discourage overgrazing.
Useful, adaptable, tolerant, prickly in places … but above all a generous and constant presence in a landscape that is at once harsh and beautiful. That’s what the woman who wrote this book became to me as I read her story.
And now, there’s one more to add to the pile: Under the Camelthorn Tree by Kate Nicholls.
Anyone looking at this cover would be forgiven for thinking this is an African idyll. A woman walks through the bush. Her legs and arms are tanned. Her hair wafts out behind her. Red hair, the colour, almost, of the scrubby grasses at her feet. Behind, the sky is a light grey, cloudy, but not threatening. The camelthorn tree bends its boughs above her, too distant for us to see the cruel thorns that make it a prickly survivor of the African landscape. The woman is beautiful, her white skirt billows, the purple scarf at her waist adds a soft touch of colour. And just in case a box is left unticked, on the back cover there’s a Shutterstock photo of the acacia (again) outlined against the orange glow of an African sunset.
There’s a great deal of truth in the adage, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, because nothing in these images prepares you for the story Kate Nicholls shares with her readers. Tender, raw, heartwarming and visceral, Under the Camelthorn Tree will leave you elated and bruised, angry and inspired, and, above all, with a deep sense of connection to a woman who has chosen to tell her story with humour and fierce honesty.
In a short note at the beginning of Under the Camelthorn Tree, Kate explains, ‘This is not an “and I was born” memoir: It is a story told in snapshots of some events between 1994 and 2016.’
As she tells her story, those events shift between life in Botswana and her time back in London, living in a house in Comeragh Road.
The story (but not the book) begins in 1994, when Kate, at one point an actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company, decides to move from their cottage in the Cotswolds to Botswana with her five children: Emily, Travers, Angus, Maisie and baby Oakley. She has decided that:
The life I was leading in England was neither preparing me nor enabling me to participate in a world that was changing more rapidly than at any time in human history. My life was safe and comfortable, and thus not challenging. Without challenge there is no growth.
I wanted my children to adventure. Adventures are not luxuries, nor are they frivolous escapades. They are the fundamental building blocks of which our species stands. Our Pleistocene ancestors took risks, met unusual experiences and resolved problems daily. Our ancestors were all successful adventurers.
‘Why Botswana?’ you may ask, and so does Wilson, a man who has studied biology at the University of Botswana. Kate gives him a lift to on her way to the Okavango Delta shortly after her arrival.
‘Why did you choose to live in Botswana?’ Wilson asked.
‘Ah, you won't believe me but it's true. The day I decided to move to Africa I opened the Times Atlas on the relevant page, shut my eyes and let my finger drop. It landed on the Congo, and after a moment's reflection I thought best not – so I tried again and that time my finger landed on Botswana. Boom – done.’
Before you throw your hands up in horror at the thought of a mother uprooting five children from the sheltered safety of life in the Cotswolds, read on!
Shortly after arriving in Botswana, Kate joins War Against Rape an organization which works tirelessly to promote HIV education and formulate proper procedures for victims of sexual abuse. And then, after meeting the evolutionary biologist Pieter Kat, she and the children move with him to Gomote Camp, where he is carrying out lion research. Kate is passionate about this field of research. Although she isn’t a qualified scientist, further snippets of her conversation with Wilson reveal that while her academic background may not be conventional, it certainly is solid:
Within minutes we were communing on the joys of Darwinism and our mutual admiration for Richard Dawkins. An inspiring school teacher had given Wilson a copy of The Selfish Gene and it had motivated him to complete his secondary education and apply to university. For me it was The Extended Phenotype that had generated a life-changing epiphany.
‘I hadn't realised how hungry I was for a fresh perspective until I read that book ... I just devoured it,’ I said eagerly. ‘It inspired me to study biology and to look at the world refreshed by deeper understanding. It changed me.’ …
Over the next few months I devoured GCSE and A-Level biology textbooks, I acquired a ticket to the Bodleian Library and I read every paper cited by Dawkins in The Extended Phenotype’s extensive bibliography. Then I hired a maths tutor to help me unravel mathematical language that stumped me. When I came up for air, I was empowered. Dawkins had handed me a compass and given me the means to ask directed questions. Questions are what fascinate me: answers are only stepping-stones on which we rest to catch our breath.
...‘I know Richard Dawkins,’ I said [to Wilson]. ‘I wrote to him to ask him a question and he replied.’
Wilson looked at me in shocked admiration.
‘I know.’ I laughed. ‘I was pretty astonished too. ... Not only did he reply but he was kind enough to teach me … [I] attended some pretty amazing lectures tutorials and conferences, all thanks to Richard.’
Kate becomes more and more involved in lion research (and this reader feels that her work on hormones, pregnancy and reproduction might even have outstripped that of her partner if the programme hadn’t been shut down). All the while her children are bush-schooled and reading how Kate contrives to make their lessons enthralling as well as informative is an eye-opening joy. Their classroom is an open hut, their bookcase is filled with an eclectic collection of books. They know the lions Kate and Pieter study by name, they know how to drive a Land Rover and change a tyre. In 2001, The Lion Children, by Angus, Maisie and Travers McNeice is published by Orion. The foreword by Richard Dawkins, ‘I Speak of Africa and Golden Joys’ was later reprinted in 2003 in A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love, a book of selected essays and other writings. In it he describes meeting the children, saying,
Think of Swallows and Amazons, except that this story is true and it all happens far from the comfort of England. Think of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, except that the Lion Children need no magic wardrobe to pass through; no fake world of wonder. The real Africa, humanity's cradle, is more magical than anything C. S. Lewis could dream up.
Later, he goes on to talk about the children’s ‘most remarkable mother’.
This accomplished book is entirely the work of its young authors, but it isn't hard to guess the source of their ability to do it — their imagination, their enterprise, their unorthodoxy, their adventurous spirit. My wife and I first met Kate Nicholls, their mother, in 1992 when she was living in the Cotswolds, pregnant with Oakley, commuting to study in Oxford libraries. A successful actress, she had become disillusioned with the stage and developed, in her late thirties, a passion (passion is the story of her life) for the science of evolution. Kate doesn't do anything by halves and, for her, an interest in evolution meant deep immersion in libraries, digging up the original research literature. With only minimal guidance from me in what became a series of informal tutorials, her reading transformed her into something of a scholarly authority on Darwinian theory. Her eventual decision to pull up roots and head for Botswana, where Darwinism can be daily witnessed in practice, seemed entirely in character: a natural, if unconventional, extension of the same scholarly quest. Her children, one can't help feeling, have a pretty fortunate inheritance, as well as an almost unique environment in which to realize it.
They also have to thank their mother for their education, and this is perhaps the most surprising aspect of their life. Quite soon after arriving in Botswana, Kate decided to teach them herself. A brave decision, I think I would have counselled against it. But I would have been wrong. Although all their schooling is done in camp, they keep proper terms, have challenging homework assignments and work towards internationally accredited exams. Kate gets good results by standard educational certifications, while at the same time tending, indeed enhancing, the natural sense of wonder that normal children too often lose during their teens, I don't think any reader of these pages could fail to judge her unorthodox School in the Bush a brilliant success. (https://archive.org/stream/DevilsChaplainARichardDawkins/Devil_s_Chaplain_A_-_Richard_Dawkins_djvu.txt)
But beyond the children's story of three special lions called Cabernet, Merlot and Sauvignon, as well as all the others they grew up observing, a far darker narrative is about to unfold, the story of Kate’s rape and the PTSD that follows. She describes the effects this has on her honestly, and in the hope that her story will help others to find a way forward after such devastation.
It’s not only Kate who suffers, her children do too. ‘Rape doesn’t just happen to one person,’ she says when asked to speak at the South Bank Centre, London. ‘It happens to the family too and it nearly broke mine. I learned about the secondary victims of rape because my children were. Secondary victims need to be acknowledged and given advocacy. Living with someone who has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is bewildering, challenging, dangerous and harmful.’
And so the book moves, between the story of life in the bush, living under a camelthorn tree, and this one too. How a mother tried and failed and tried again to heal.
‘Healing is a messy, Sisyphean process,’ Kate says ‘– it’s not like it is in the movies.’ The same can be said of this book. It’s not like it is in the movies, nor as it appears to be on the cover.
A Google search informed me that the camelthorn copes well in poor soils and in harsh conditions, tolerating hot summer temperatures and severe frosts. It’s a useful tree, good for firewood, fodder and medicine. It’s more susceptible to lightning strikes than other trees, possibly because it’s often the only feature of a flat landscape. And then there’s the deep shade – it spreads its canopy like a big green umbrella in an arid land. And finally, it has those thorns … vicious spikes that grow in pairs and discourage overgrazing.
Useful, adaptable, tolerant, prickly in places … but above all a generous and constant presence in a landscape that is at once harsh and beautiful. That’s what the woman who wrote this book became to me as I read her story.
August 15, 2019
This is a very special and deeply moving memoir that I really did not want to finish.
The author’s voice is filled with compassion, openness and vitality and so too is her attitude to life, so much so that I found this book inspiring and life(in all its shades, both beautiful and ugly, ecstatic and depressing)-affirming. This shines through in her generous sense of humour and turns of phrase.
I learnt masses from reading this memoir and I feel that the wisdom it can give to parents, teachers, learners, writers, those who have experienced PTSD or alcoholism, and those who want to understand family and love more fully will get so much from it and this is why I shall be recommending it to so many people.
I hope there will be a sequel!
The author’s voice is filled with compassion, openness and vitality and so too is her attitude to life, so much so that I found this book inspiring and life(in all its shades, both beautiful and ugly, ecstatic and depressing)-affirming. This shines through in her generous sense of humour and turns of phrase.
I learnt masses from reading this memoir and I feel that the wisdom it can give to parents, teachers, learners, writers, those who have experienced PTSD or alcoholism, and those who want to understand family and love more fully will get so much from it and this is why I shall be recommending it to so many people.
I hope there will be a sequel!
July 22, 2019
A must-read, haunting book.
Kate Nicholls and her five young children, Emily, Travers, Angus, Maisie and Oakley (aged just eleven-months-old) moved to Botswana in 1994. As a biologist, Kate wanted to work with lions and decided that taking the children would broaden their horizons, life in the bush would be harsh, but give them something very few other children ever get to experience, living among wild animals.
When Kate first moved to Maun, she started working with a group called War Against Rape. Botswana is one of the countries ravaged by HIV/AIDS. The population had the misconceived idea that raping a child could cure a man from the deadly disease, and as a result, the group were called in to help these extremely traumatised survivors as well as many women.
Her work with the lions makes for fascinating reading. Living in the bush, with a machete close at hand to sort out deadly snakes, will live in my memory. It is the one phobia that I have of the bush. I also loved the elephants who visited the campsite. They lived in harmony with the family.
Kate's homeschooled her children. These four words cannot describe the impact she made on their lives. They have all far exceeded all expectations in their chosen careers. All attended university. All have confidence and abilities that bounce off every page of the book. They all knew how to handle a Land Rover, change a tyre, and from a very early age were able to drive. Tracking and identifying lions were part of their daily lives.
There is a very dark side to the book. Kate’s rape and her PTSD. She describes it with brutal honesty and how it affected her for years after she left Botswana and the impact her behaviour, as a result of the rape had on her children and partner, Pieter. It is part of her story and part of her life. What is more important is that she's written about it, and by writing and sharing this traumatic experience, she might have just helped someone else take that first step towards surviving as well.
Our world would be a very dull place without people like Kate Nichols. She left the comfort of her very established life in England to follow a dream; working and studying lions. As a result, her five children were homeschooled under a Camelthorn tree, where they not only had possibly the best education possible but learnt life-lessons that most children nor adults ever get the chance to experience.
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Kate Nicholls and her five young children, Emily, Travers, Angus, Maisie and Oakley (aged just eleven-months-old) moved to Botswana in 1994. As a biologist, Kate wanted to work with lions and decided that taking the children would broaden their horizons, life in the bush would be harsh, but give them something very few other children ever get to experience, living among wild animals.
When Kate first moved to Maun, she started working with a group called War Against Rape. Botswana is one of the countries ravaged by HIV/AIDS. The population had the misconceived idea that raping a child could cure a man from the deadly disease, and as a result, the group were called in to help these extremely traumatised survivors as well as many women.
Her work with the lions makes for fascinating reading. Living in the bush, with a machete close at hand to sort out deadly snakes, will live in my memory. It is the one phobia that I have of the bush. I also loved the elephants who visited the campsite. They lived in harmony with the family.
Kate's homeschooled her children. These four words cannot describe the impact she made on their lives. They have all far exceeded all expectations in their chosen careers. All attended university. All have confidence and abilities that bounce off every page of the book. They all knew how to handle a Land Rover, change a tyre, and from a very early age were able to drive. Tracking and identifying lions were part of their daily lives.
There is a very dark side to the book. Kate’s rape and her PTSD. She describes it with brutal honesty and how it affected her for years after she left Botswana and the impact her behaviour, as a result of the rape had on her children and partner, Pieter. It is part of her story and part of her life. What is more important is that she's written about it, and by writing and sharing this traumatic experience, she might have just helped someone else take that first step towards surviving as well.
Our world would be a very dull place without people like Kate Nichols. She left the comfort of her very established life in England to follow a dream; working and studying lions. As a result, her five children were homeschooled under a Camelthorn tree, where they not only had possibly the best education possible but learnt life-lessons that most children nor adults ever get the chance to experience.
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
May 2, 2019
Couldn't put this book down! Full of surprises it isn't what one might expect on first sight.
Researching lions and raising five children in a conservation camp in Botswana may sound romantic, adventurous and the perfect setting for a Hollywood blockbuster (and it truly is!) but Kate Nicholls' memoir goes way beyond the chlichés and tackles challenging issues. When visiting the nearest city to stock up on supplies, the author is raped. She returns to the camp but - deeply traumatised - loses the connection to the confident and caring mother she used to be. It will take years for her to properly recover from the violence and it's heartwrenching but also eye-opening to realize that as a society we fail to provide a support system for the people closest to the survivor which are often - as in the case of this memoir - still children.
This is a tough story but never a difficult book to read. The author's sense of humour, warmth and intelligence carry the reader through the difficult moments. And quite apart from the insight it provides into the dynamics of post-traumatic stress disorder and its effect on loved ones, 'Under the Camelthorn Tree' is filled with amazing stories and anecdotes about the surprising routines of day-to-day life in a conservation camp and the most varied topics ranging from homeschooling all the way to the mating habits of lions.
Researching lions and raising five children in a conservation camp in Botswana may sound romantic, adventurous and the perfect setting for a Hollywood blockbuster (and it truly is!) but Kate Nicholls' memoir goes way beyond the chlichés and tackles challenging issues. When visiting the nearest city to stock up on supplies, the author is raped. She returns to the camp but - deeply traumatised - loses the connection to the confident and caring mother she used to be. It will take years for her to properly recover from the violence and it's heartwrenching but also eye-opening to realize that as a society we fail to provide a support system for the people closest to the survivor which are often - as in the case of this memoir - still children.
This is a tough story but never a difficult book to read. The author's sense of humour, warmth and intelligence carry the reader through the difficult moments. And quite apart from the insight it provides into the dynamics of post-traumatic stress disorder and its effect on loved ones, 'Under the Camelthorn Tree' is filled with amazing stories and anecdotes about the surprising routines of day-to-day life in a conservation camp and the most varied topics ranging from homeschooling all the way to the mating habits of lions.
July 9, 2019
This is not at all a ‘born again in Africa, free-spirited mother wanders about with children and lions in Botswana’ chronicle. It’s a memoir like no other, which chiefly deals with Kate’s recovery and PTSD after being brutally raped and how the secondary victims of this trauma (her children) are effected. It’s about how the family overcomes, but not without some quite extreme lows and also very poignant and tender moments. Kate speaks about the fear of failing your children, how she did fail hers and then had to deal with herself in the aftermath. Peppered throughout with her fantastically sharp brand of wit, Kate writes just as she speaks, full of heart and vibrancy.
Her intellect, wide knowledge, courage, resilience in adversity and ever present zest for life culminate in a truly outstanding and unique memoir. I worry that this book won't be picked up because of its cliché packaging. It is so special, read it so you can see why.
Her intellect, wide knowledge, courage, resilience in adversity and ever present zest for life culminate in a truly outstanding and unique memoir. I worry that this book won't be picked up because of its cliché packaging. It is so special, read it so you can see why.
April 24, 2019
A beautifully written account of a true adventure, the good and the bad, and a heartwarming and sometimes heart wrenchingly honest tale of motherhood. This book will make you laugh and cry in equal measures - I devoured it in less than 48 hours, a ‘just one more page’ book which will have you reading into the night until it’s finished.
August 9, 2021
Definitely not your gentle beach read, this haunting true story is about one woman's fight to live life to the full on her own terms, face her inadequacies head on, and tell her story with brutal honesty, regardless of the consequences.
Uprooting herself from London ennui to go and live in darkest Africa, home school her five children (by three different absent fathers) and live amongst the lions with an achingly adored game ranger, was clearly balm to her soul.
She wears her heart on her sleeve in what seems like reckless abandon, living and loving rapturously, impetuously and with incredibly deep passion, her own early wounds clearly never quite healed, urging herself ever onwards to escape what one can only suspect is an underlying sense of unease in the world she grew up in. The heart-wrenching irony of her working hard to combat gender-based violence and rape in Botswana - perhaps because of her own sexual abuse as a child - and then being raped by three men as an adult and mother, is quite devastating.
And her obvious inadequacy in dealing with the trauma that she had helped so many others through, seems inexplicable - until we are unrelentingly confronted with the intense anguish that rape can inflict on an innocent victim. And when the author finally finds her own path through the morass and her new-found strength gradually blossoms, we rejoice with her, only to have our hearts broken once more as life deals her another bitter blow.
The writing is filled with beautiful, evocative sounds and smells and sights and raw feelings, and you can't help getting swept away by her ardent, atmospheric prose and the heady emotions that spill out of her, tugging at your oh-so-much-more-protected sensibilities - yet leaving you breathless and lip-gnawing with the kind of deep concern parents have for their offspring of whatever age, especially those who are highly, sensitive, intelligent, wayward, and almost naive at times, but true at heart and trying to live lives that make a difference, damn it!
Uprooting herself from London ennui to go and live in darkest Africa, home school her five children (by three different absent fathers) and live amongst the lions with an achingly adored game ranger, was clearly balm to her soul.
She wears her heart on her sleeve in what seems like reckless abandon, living and loving rapturously, impetuously and with incredibly deep passion, her own early wounds clearly never quite healed, urging herself ever onwards to escape what one can only suspect is an underlying sense of unease in the world she grew up in. The heart-wrenching irony of her working hard to combat gender-based violence and rape in Botswana - perhaps because of her own sexual abuse as a child - and then being raped by three men as an adult and mother, is quite devastating.
And her obvious inadequacy in dealing with the trauma that she had helped so many others through, seems inexplicable - until we are unrelentingly confronted with the intense anguish that rape can inflict on an innocent victim. And when the author finally finds her own path through the morass and her new-found strength gradually blossoms, we rejoice with her, only to have our hearts broken once more as life deals her another bitter blow.
The writing is filled with beautiful, evocative sounds and smells and sights and raw feelings, and you can't help getting swept away by her ardent, atmospheric prose and the heady emotions that spill out of her, tugging at your oh-so-much-more-protected sensibilities - yet leaving you breathless and lip-gnawing with the kind of deep concern parents have for their offspring of whatever age, especially those who are highly, sensitive, intelligent, wayward, and almost naive at times, but true at heart and trying to live lives that make a difference, damn it!
March 8, 2020
When I started this book, and for about a third of the way through, I thought 'what an angry lady'. But reading more about the choices she made, how she dealt with them, how she held her own in the long run, and also how her family coped and made the grade through it all, I realised that she is not as
angry as much as she is bold, straight-talking and fierce. To quote her son, Angus, "We always make a plan, don't we Mum?"
'You go girl!' - you have delivered an amazing book with descriptive prose and brilliant wordsmithing (just read page 298 - the description of Jo'burg) - home schooling in a different way for your reders.
A few wise utterances that I still think about are:
On really listening - "Travers was dealing with years of hurt, fear and rage. His story was not my story. His hurt was not my hurt. The family Gordian knot has individual threads and I had to make sure I followed his and didn't drop it or get it muddled with someone else's";
On forgiveness and healing - "....:forgiveness has its place, but I am not convinced by its curative powers. It is healing when it arises instintively, but the notion that forgiving is a required aspect of healing is brutal";
On being in a bookshop - "...breathe the smell of hope that fresh books offer".
angry as much as she is bold, straight-talking and fierce. To quote her son, Angus, "We always make a plan, don't we Mum?"
'You go girl!' - you have delivered an amazing book with descriptive prose and brilliant wordsmithing (just read page 298 - the description of Jo'burg) - home schooling in a different way for your reders.
A few wise utterances that I still think about are:
On really listening - "Travers was dealing with years of hurt, fear and rage. His story was not my story. His hurt was not my hurt. The family Gordian knot has individual threads and I had to make sure I followed his and didn't drop it or get it muddled with someone else's";
On forgiveness and healing - "....:forgiveness has its place, but I am not convinced by its curative powers. It is healing when it arises instintively, but the notion that forgiving is a required aspect of healing is brutal";
On being in a bookshop - "...breathe the smell of hope that fresh books offer".
August 20, 2020
Some books are so compelling and the descriptions so vivid that you become immediately transported to a place, and this is how I felt reading Under the Chamelthorn Tree.
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Kate Nicholls left England to start a new life with her five children in Botswana. From living on a shoe string budget, home schooling and living on a lion conservation camp, each of their lives become changed forever.
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This memoir discusses rape and Kate begins to work with others teaching and helping those with HIV and AIDS and trying to spread the word about the horrific sexual assaults some women are subjected too.
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When Kate herself is raped this starts a series of events that triggers alcoholism and PTSD whilst Kate herself is trying to connect with her children.
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This book is raw and heart wrenching. The descriptions are intense but the message shared more so. Kate was speaking up for others whilst suffering immense pain herself.
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This book was absorbing and one i read in two sittings. I now want to visit Botswana and see some of these lions for myself and I want to learn more about the women who live there and their lives.
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A book that is thoroughly enjoyable and one that makes you want to learn. I think that can definitely be described as a good book.
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Kate Nicholls left England to start a new life with her five children in Botswana. From living on a shoe string budget, home schooling and living on a lion conservation camp, each of their lives become changed forever.
.
This memoir discusses rape and Kate begins to work with others teaching and helping those with HIV and AIDS and trying to spread the word about the horrific sexual assaults some women are subjected too.
.
When Kate herself is raped this starts a series of events that triggers alcoholism and PTSD whilst Kate herself is trying to connect with her children.
.
This book is raw and heart wrenching. The descriptions are intense but the message shared more so. Kate was speaking up for others whilst suffering immense pain herself.
.
This book was absorbing and one i read in two sittings. I now want to visit Botswana and see some of these lions for myself and I want to learn more about the women who live there and their lives.
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A book that is thoroughly enjoyable and one that makes you want to learn. I think that can definitely be described as a good book.
August 22, 2020
Oh my! I couldn't put this book down. What a true story; both heartwarming and heartwrenching, good times, bad times, full of adventure, real one of a kind life!
This was such an epic and raw account of Kate and her five childrens lives in the African bush. These lives though unconventional are full of bravery, fierceness, tenderness, hardship, discovery and intelligence, interrupted by a horrifying incident which rips into and severs life, as the family knew it. Things start to crumble and fall apart and the ongoing affects of PTSD and damage this has on all the family is laid bare by Kate in this memoir.
The story is both harrowing and fascinating. The eventual strength and will to rebuild lives from rock bottom is encompassing. It's brutally honest and I've not read a book quite like it. Absolutely engrossing!
This was such an epic and raw account of Kate and her five childrens lives in the African bush. These lives though unconventional are full of bravery, fierceness, tenderness, hardship, discovery and intelligence, interrupted by a horrifying incident which rips into and severs life, as the family knew it. Things start to crumble and fall apart and the ongoing affects of PTSD and damage this has on all the family is laid bare by Kate in this memoir.
The story is both harrowing and fascinating. The eventual strength and will to rebuild lives from rock bottom is encompassing. It's brutally honest and I've not read a book quite like it. Absolutely engrossing!
March 31, 2021
Don't allow yourself to be put off by the fairly pedestrian writing in the beginning. Believe me, this memoir is truly amazing! An intrepid English woman waltzes into the Delta (with her FIVE children, nogal!) and her home-schooling, for instance, is an absolute wonder. How does she teach about the earth's tectonic plates? By making different strengths of toffee, that's how! What a creative, absorbing and fun way to teach about rock and the different kinds. And her energy and hunger for knowledge seems to know no bounds. She cooks, she researches, she nurtures, she recovers, .... I feel a bit like Mr Bingley describing how wonderful the ladies are! And I LOVED the references to Narnia, to Plumfield, never mind to Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker. Read this book. (Oh and don't worry about the cover, it is NOT like it looks = all wafty).
Read
August 15, 2020Nicholls, a woman of indomitable energy, takes her five children from England to live in Botswana in the 1990s. The family bounces around from camp to camp trying to make their way as lion researchers badly needed at the time as Botswana's lion population was being ravaged by FIV the animal version of HIV. Kate hooks up with Pieter an experienced lion guy and she homeschools her kids successfully. The narrative bounces back and forth between Africa late 90s and England 2010 and it's obvious something changed Kate in the interim. About 2/3rds of the way through the book it's revealed what caused the damage. It's a shocker. It upsets everything, and lives and the family are busted up. The denouement though shows repair is possible with hard work. A great family story.
October 27, 2022
My library copy of this book is subtitled 'Raising A Family Among Lions', so I picked this up as I enjoy reading books about animals and field research. But the subtitle of the copy on LT is subtitled 'The Impact of Trauma on One Family' so as you can imagine this quickly took a turn into darker territory.
It was not until I was about halfway through that I connected the dots as to who this family was. When I homeschooled, my kids loved a book called The Lion Children about a family who studies lions in Botswana. Same family, but this is the mother's story, written looking back on a brutal assault that occurred in Botswana and the aftermath of that attack.
I read it in one day. It is riveting, heartbreaking and brutally honest, but ultimately hopeful.
It was not until I was about halfway through that I connected the dots as to who this family was. When I homeschooled, my kids loved a book called The Lion Children about a family who studies lions in Botswana. Same family, but this is the mother's story, written looking back on a brutal assault that occurred in Botswana and the aftermath of that attack.
I read it in one day. It is riveting, heartbreaking and brutally honest, but ultimately hopeful.
January 31, 2021
I seldom read non fiction and never read memoirs. But I sort of stumbled into reading this and boy am I glad I did. What a moving, entertaining, thought provoking book. The sense of place is amazing, I could practically smell the camp in Botswana. The laughter, the almost unbearable pain, the amazing practical skills of the children, the love, the trauma, all of it so beautifully expressed that I felt totally immersed in the life of Kate and her family. Now I need to read the book her children wrote.
September 15, 2025
Under the Camelthorn Tree is one of the most moving memoirs I’ve read in a long time. Kate Nicholls shares her story with such honesty, warmth, and strength that I found myself completely drawn into her world. From life in Botswana surrounded by lions to the raw portrayal of family resilience and healing after trauma, every page left me inspired. This is a book that makes you laugh, cry, and reflect deeply on the power of love, courage, and survival. An unforgettable read that will stay with me for years.
November 14, 2020
Kate Nicholls has portrayed the life of her family in a lion conservation camp in Botswana through her amazing book. The problems and pitfalls of their lives in an HIV infested area and how they manage to survive it are revealed. After bringing the children from England to live in the wilds of Africa the changes to each child and herself become evident and the repercussions are not always good. Family love is what is important and this becomes a beacon of hope.
May 7, 2019
Really unusual, the author and the story are one of a kind. We could all learn something from this brave and open-hearted woman... The story of the lions and the story of her family is tragic and unexpected. Inspiring, raw, honest and funny, this is one of those books which I felt came into my life exactly when I needed to read it.
July 8, 2020
I loved this book. An amazing story that is full of adventure, personal hardship and bravery. Taking 5 children off to an unknown country as a single mother for a new start is pretty inspiring. And I loved learning about life in Botswana and the Bush. And her honesty about how she dealt with trauma and raising her kids.
August 25, 2020
This book felt very personal to the main character. Showing the resilience humans have after they face hard times and how they adapt and change to make things better. There is a brutal honesty in the way it is wrote. The author did an amazing job and i was gripped from beginning to end. Beautifully written.
August 26, 2023
As a South African reader living in Johannesburg, I found this book sad, depressing and brutal. Well written it gives the reader an understanding of the harshness of Kate’s life in Africa and I take my hat off to her taking her large young family to Botswana and exposing them the all the dangers of living in the African bush. In spite of the pull of Africa, the dangers outweigh the rewards.
September 6, 2024
A very interesting book with amazing stories of life in a conservation camp in Botswana. I think her children are so lucky to have had this experience, but her resultant behaviour after her rape deeply affected her children and her partner. I didn’t really connect with the author, but I still believe it’s a worthwhile read.
April 10, 2025
Interesting story about raising kids in the African landscape and the challenges of field research. I found it got tedious though with her self hate and I was frustrated with the changing timelines. The kids would now be amazing and resilient adults!
April 20, 2019
I read it in four days and hand on heart the most intelligent, inspiring, raw, honest, brave and evocative book I’ve ever read. Thanks Kate’s for your story....I’ve never read
Anything like it. Really looking forward to your next book.
Anything like it. Really looking forward to your next book.
April 20, 2019
What a beautifully written and remarkably enjoyable read. This book will really challenge you, and get you thinking. Highly recommended!
July 6, 2019
A riveting account of one woman’s choices and the impact they have on her and her children. A warts-and-all account. I could not put this down!
July 13, 2019
It might be a bit early but I’m calling this for my book of 2019....magnificent
October 19, 2019
Wonderfully compelling, thought provoking memoir. It had me crying one moment and laughing the next. I shall be recommending this to all my friends both female and male..
February 9, 2020
Such a great journey down memory lane - interspersed with horrifying incidents. A courageous book.
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