MAJOR Bruce Kinloch has stood eyeball to eyeball with bull elephants, forced to shoot them at point-blank range to save his life or to hide in jungles and swamps to escape their wrath.

But he has never swerved in his fascination, love and respect for such magnificent and noble animals.

He spent many years as chief game warden in three different African countries where his love affair with elephants was forged.

And when he wrote The Shamba Raiders about his battles to preserve wildlife, first published in 1972, elephants played the major role.

It proved so successful a revised edition came out in 1988 and now it is back on the bookshelves a third time.

Major Kinloch, now 85, is delighted. He lives with his wife Elizabeth at Scotch Firs in Fownhope and admits to still enjoying catching a salmon in the nearby Wye.

That his book is still in demand is a source of pride to both: Elizabeth who accompanied him frequently and typed up the notes of his original book. "It is a book that never dies, it's contents are as relevant now as ever,'' she said.

Major Kinloch was no stranger to danger before his life in Africa: a soldier, he was commissioned into the Indian Army, saw active service on the North West Frontier and then during the greater part of the Burma Campaign. He was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the Battle of Sittang River bridge in 1942.

Later he ran some of the first jungle warfare courses and commanded the 4/9th Ghurka Rifles.

He joined the Colonial Service in 1947, went to Africa and battles of a different kind began.

Although some involved the need to kill, his main object was to preserve wild species .

In a unique career he became, in turn, chief game warden of Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi and The Shamba Raiders gives a fascinating account of the eternal struggle to preserve herds of game threatened by modern civilisation, poaching, war and the political and economic changes which swept Africa in the middle of the last century.

As chief warden he walked the tight rope of retaining Africa's wildlife heritage while safeguarding crops and livelihood of the population.#

It meant run-ins with serious ivory poachers, devious middlemen and uncaring and bigoted officials.

With a tale to tell on every page, there are serious and often funny, vivid descriptions that thrill the imagination while stories of slaughter and snares touch the heart, and conscience.

Major Kinloch is said to be one of just a few to have had great influence on the conservation of Africa's great herds of wild game, his advice being valued as an authority on wild life management.

His greatest contribution was undoubtedly founding of the College of African Wildlife Management on the slopes of Kilimanjaro which has trained thousands of game wardens.

The Shamba Raiders (elephants are the raiders, shamba means cultivated areas) - is a book written by a man who has been there, seen it and done it.

The Shamba Raiders, published: Librario Publishing. Price: £14.99.