The Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson

In this first-ever biography of Colonel John Patterson, Denis Brian

reveals his subject to be a diverse composite of identities. An Irishborn

soldier, lion hunter, bridge builder, East African game warden,

author, and Zionist, Patterson's life is a fascinating story, and Brian's

well-researched account gives a revealing look into the ebb and

flow of circumstances that produced such a colorful character.

Brian begins the narrative with Patterson's assignment in East

Africa, where lion attacks are terrorizing workers on a railroad project.

With a storyteller's breathtaking tone, he details accounts of

Patterson quelling the rebellion and killing the lions himself. The

colonel's indomitable energy and courage become a consistent

theme in the book as the author traces Patterson's life from his days

as a British socialite to his recruitment of the Jewish Legion of volunteers

who helped drive the Turks out of Palestine.

Patterson spent most of his later years as an ardent Zionist, working

for the creation of a Jewish homeland until his death in 1947, a year

before the birth of the state of Israel. Drawing on an impressive range

of sources, Brian's biography of this "Righteous Gentile" is an incisive

portrait of a key figure in both Israeli and colonial British history.