The Prince Who Walked With Lions

Elizabeth Laird's The Prince Who Walked With Lions is a moving historical novel for 10 year olds about an Ethiopian prince who ends up at an English boarding school.

What happens

Alamayu is lying in the sickbay at Rugby School with a fever. Every evening, as it rises, his memories of home come flooding back.

Home was Magdala, a mountain fortress in Abyssinia (the old name for Ethiopia). His father was the Emperor Theodore, a king of kings, and Alamayu was his much-loved little prince. Lions padded about outside the royal house and eagles circled over the peaks. At seven, he sat on a dais in a silk tunic with his hand on a lion's head, while old chiefs promised to be loyal to him.

But his father was holding European prisoners on the mountain. And a huge British army, with elephants, was on its way to get them out.

Alamayu tells the story himself, moving between the lonely schoolboy in England and the little boy in Abyssinia. The two sit side by side beautifully. He's trying so hard to be an ordinary English boy, but the smell of a bonfire or a face in a fever dream takes him straight back.

His father is the heart of it. He's loving one minute and terrifying the next, and little Alamayu never knows which one he'll get. It's an honest, complicated picture, and very moving.

There are gentle moments too. His friend Beetle, who loves insects and doesn't care what anyone thinks, is a lovely character. And Mr Rassam, the British envoy and one of the prisoners, teaches the young prince English words by his fire.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This is a book about a real war and it doesn't look away. Prisoners are killed and their bodies left below the cliffs, the emperor's cruelty to his enemies is talked about openly, and at Rugby some of the boys call Alamayu racist names. He's also seriously ill in the sickbay. A sensitive reader could find parts of this upsetting.

For a thoughtful reader who likes history and real lives, though, this is a very special book. It'll probably leave them wanting to find out more about Ethiopia, and about the real Alamayu.

What to read next

If they'd like to stay in Ethiopia a little longer, Elizabeth Laird's The Fastest Boy in the World is a much gentler story about Solomon, a boy from the highlands who runs everywhere and dreams of being a great athlete.