Alastair Fothergill's wildlife movie 'African Cats'

This year Alastair Fothergill, who I was working for at the time I wrote Ride the Wings of Morning, brought out the wildlife movie African Cats produced for DisneyNature. It was filmed entirely on location in the Masai Mara. Each shot is beautiful. Have you seen it? What is quite daunting is that Sarah-Jane and I rode across the same country - on horses.

Sketches of Giraffe

Watching girafffe is an incredibly peaceful activity.

This is possibly because although they seem to be silent, the adults communicate at a frequency we cannot detect.

It's always rather alarming to see how long their tongues are.

It is diffcult to draw them when you are given a regular-sized commission, but not impossible:

I once produced this ink and watercolour to illustrate a brochure.

And this cartoon for a map of horse safaris in the Okavango.

But this quick sketch is perhaps my favorite.


All sketches are featured in 'Ride the Wings of Morning' and are (c) Sophie Neville. Please contact me if you need to use them on sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

What Ant and Tessa Baber are doing now - two of the characters from 'Ride the Wings of Morning'

Anthony and Tessa Baber, who appear in 'Ride the Wings of Morning' are still running horse safaris in the Waterberg. They have had great success breeding rare species such as Sable Antelope and Livingstone Eland. I was able to take Tamzin out to ride with them for a much needed break from her own livestock. She was thrilled to meet the rhino and was amazed how close Anthony got to them - on foot.

Elephants I have known ~

I was once able to spend three days at Abu's Camp in Botswana. This is Abu.

I not only walked with Africa elephants, but we rode them.

What was enchanting was that the young elephants - orphans who had been adopted into the herd - came with us. Having completed these graphics for the Elephant Back Safaris I went on to sketch wild elephants in Damaraland, in Namibia.

I ended up with two sets of silhouettes of elephant walking acorss the desert in single file, as they do, which I sold as limited edition prints and as 'Elephant Writing Paper'. These sold through the David Sheppherd Wildlife Foundation and The Born Free catalogues.

It looks a bit odd without any writing on it. This is how it looked in the catalogue.

And on my own art website.

All sketches are featured in 'Ride the Wings of Morning' and are (c) Sophie Neville. Please contact me if you need to use them on sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

A recent review from a rider ~

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous! 

"Ride the Wings of the Morning" is a fabulous read and within a couple of pages I was transported to the African bush. The places and the characters are captured brilliantly. It brings to life some of the reality of life in the bush and the ridiculous situations that you do find yourself in...

Sophie writes with such wit, humility and perception. I did chuckle out loud several times! Even my non-horsey husband enjoyed it as he has had to be dragged around Africa ...   ~ Jane Dawson

Twenty years ago in Zimbabwe ~

~ Fishing on the Pungwe River ~

A short extract from 'Ride the Wings of Morning' ~

"I’m now staying with an artist in the Nyanga Highlands, a girl who is married to a British Army officer out here with BMATT who provide military training for the Zimbabwean Forces. They spend their spare time fishing in the Pungwe River or picnicking on gigantic granite boulders while their children splash in the shallows. There are parties here all the time, and unlike in South Africa, where men talk to men and women with women, they actually interact normally. I am assured this isn’t always so in the local community but Zimbabweans tend to be outgoing and rather fun. I went riding with a farmer’s wife called Pixie. She had one little girl called Burgundy and another called Summer Rain. They rode their ponies bareback, jumping them over gates and fences without hesitation. I’m heading for Victoria Falls by train next week and after going down the Zambezi plan to fly up to Lilongwe so I can drive up through Malawi to the Nyika Plateau.

I didn’t realise how bushed I had become at Equus. I hadn’t taken a day off in four months ~ hadn’t used my own money, watched television, worn anything accept khaki clothes, had hardly driven on a tarmac road or been to a town since I was in the Cape. It’s strange adjusting back to life on the open road and making decisions alone. Being able to wear turquoise. Having time for myself."

~ Read more of 'Ride the Wings of Morning' on Amazon.co.uk

All sketches on the blog are featured in 'Ride the Wings of Morning' and are (c) Sophie Neville. Please contact me if you need to use them on sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

A review from Belgium ~

As a South African living outside of SA at the moment I am really enjoying this book, recognising places Sophie writes about. Sophie Neville and her family have a great sense of humour, and the letters going back and forth between them often have me laughing out loud. The art throughout this book is fantastic.
Tammy Visagie ~ Belgium