Ruark Hip Flask – 236ml

Robert Ruark
(29 December 1915 – 1 July 1965)

If ever a time and place that had a profound effect on man, that time was the 1950s. The place was Africa, and the man was Robert Ruark. It was in Africa that the author of Horn of the Hunter finally found himself and grasped the significance of his being.

Having gained success as a writer in America, Ruark decided to fulfil a lifelong dream of embarking on an African safari. Taking leave for an entire year, he travelled with his wife Virginia to British East Africa (now Kenya and Tanzania) for a nine-week safari, along with their professional hunter, Harry Selby. Accompanied by a group of local runners and guides, a Jeep, and an old lorry, they ventured into the bush for an adventure that would change their lives. This marked the start of Ruark’s love affair with Africa. Horn of the Hunter was the product of this journey, in which he detailed their expedition. Ruark’s first bestselling novel, Something of Value, published in 1955, was about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, followed by its sequel, Uhuru, in 1962.

While hunting in Africa, Ruark found the ‘dark continent’ anything but dark, for it was here that he finally found enlightenment and a measure of contentment for his troubled soul. Robert Ruark’s witnessing of Africa span the years from his first safari, when he wrote Horn of the Hunter, to a story published just two months before he died in 1965.

The legend of Robert Ruark personifies a collective search for adventure, an intimacy to wild earth, and a desire to capture the African heart and soul. Ruark’s passion for the continent is the foundation of our collection of safari clothing, luggage and accessories, in which leisure and adventure meet to conjure the lures of an untamed, picturesque Africa.