However moments later the white lion appears and Bertie runs out to meet him. When the Frenchman comes to the farmhouse to collect the lion Bertie's father has to tell him a lie that he has ran away. After some time Bertie fires the rifle and the lion runs off into distance, thankful that he won't have to spend time behind bars in a circus.

He decides to take the situation into his own hands and in the middle of the night takes the lion and his father's rifle and sneaks out into the veldt. His father breaks the news that the lion is to be sold to a circus owner from France. Bertie's immediate concern is what will happen to his lion. Bertie even reads to him.īertie has the best year of his life but it's shattered when his father decides that it would be best for him to go to a boarding school in England.

Bertie and the lion cub do everything together, wash, eat, drink.

After an argument ensued between Bertie's mother and father the white lion cub becomes part of the family. He quickly runs outside and scares off the preying hyenas and he and his mother take the young lion into the house. He looks out and sees that the white lion cub is surrounded by hyenas. Bertie is distraught in the knowledge that it is most likely the mother of the young white lion cub.Ī week or so passes and Bertie was suddenly awoken by a commotion outside by the waterhole. One evening, when Bertie is about six years old, he spots a lioness drinking in the waterhole and just behind her a young lion cub - but it was white!Ī few weeks later, after not seeing the white lion cub and lioness, Bertie's father comes home triumphant that he has killed a huge lioness that he claims was taken half a dozen of his best cattle. There he would watch the baboons, the zebras, wildebeest, elephants, and most exciting of all a pride of lions. To occupy his time he spends day after day gazing out at the wonders of the veldt from the safe confines of the farmhouse compound. There Bertie is secluded and only has his mother and father for companionship. The reminiscence takes the pair back to Bertie's birthplace, a small village called Timbavati, in a remote area of South Africa. She recounts his story to a schoolboy who has just run away from boarding school and taken shelter from the rain, all the while gazing out the window at the 'butterfly lion' that is mysteriously emblazoned on the hillside. The novel is the story of a young boy, Bertie, as told through the memory of an elderly woman who knew him. But instead of a friendship between two people, much like his earlier works, The Butterfly Lion focuses largely on the friendship between a boy and an animal. Following in the same vain as the hugely successful War Horse and The Dancing Bear, Michael Morpurgo's The Butterfly Lion has the theme of friendship running through its narrative.

The butterfly and the lion