THE RIVER HORSE WHISPERER

THE RIVER HORSE WHISPERER is Karen’s story of her life with the hippos of the Turgwe over the last twenty two years. Not only is this a love story – for the hippos, as well as her love of Africa and for her husband – but also a story of survival against all the odds.

Situated on the banks of the Turgwe River in the Southeast of Zimbabwe, Karen’s tiny home seems idyllic. She has lived there for the last twenty years with her husband, but also with her hippos, and assorted other animals, she has come to call their ‘family’.

But since arriving there in 1990, Karen has had to battle constantly to simply survive. She has fought droughts and prejudice, and found herself in life-threatening situations with Robert Mugabe’s “war vets” who have taken over the surrounding land. Through it all, Karen has refused to leave her home, knowing that to do so would mean death to the animals so close to her heart. Following the devastating drought of 1991/92, she set up the Turgwe Hippo Trust, a non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting the hippos of the Turgwe as well as hippos across Zimbabwe.

Beautiful, dramatic and above all inspirational, Karen’s story will appeal to anyone who loves animals, Africa or simply the idea of following your dream.

Born in England, to a veterinarian father and a mother who ran a children's zoo, Karen Paolillo spent her childhood with the deer that roamed Woburn park. After spending the nomadic first years of her adulthood in Africa, Karen has now become the world’s unofficial expert on hippos. Having watched them on a daily basis for the last twenty years, she has become known as “the Lady who talks to Hippos”, or “The River-Horse Whisperer” and now lives alongside the hippos with her French geologist husband, Jean-Roger, several warthogs, and a baboon.