Top ten animal stories

Lauren St. John is the author of the White Giraffe series and the Laura Marlin mysteries.

For the Guardian she named her top ten animal adventures.

One title on the list:

Born Free by Joy Adamson

The ultimate animal book. Joy Adamson's multi million-selling 1960 book about orphaned Elsa, the lioness she and her husband George raised and released into the wild in Kenya became one of the successful films of all time when husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna starred as the couple. It was one of the first ever accounts of the unique bond that could be formed between humans and wild animals, and at the vanguard of the modern conservation movement. Through Elsa's experiences, generations learned that wild animals were not just things to be shot, eaten or caged, but that they feel many of the emotions that we do. McKenna and Travers went on to set up the wildlife charity that would become the Born Free Foundation, at the heart of which is the belief that wild animals belong in the wild.

Read about another book on the list.

Visit Lauren St. John's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue