An Elephant In My Kitchen

How does a glamorous urban blonde end up running an animal orphanage in Africa? Françoise Anthony tells her incredible tale of love, loss and baby elephants

- Julia Llewellyn Smith

The first time Françoise Anthony visited the South African bush with her then boyfriend and later-to-be husband, Lawrence, she had no idea what was in store. “I was a city girl,” she laughs. “I’d never been to a zoo, I’d never even owned a pet! Suddenly, here we were surrounded by rhinos. Lawrence said a group of them was called a ‘crash’. I was terrified.”

Some 30 years later, Françoise, 63, is now an undisputed wildlife expert, and the boss of the Thula Thula game reserve and lodge in the KwaZulu-Natal province, which she, and renowned conservationist Lawrence, created together.

They made the most unlikely couple. Françoise was a sophisticated blonde with a high-flying career at the French Chamber of Commerce, while Lawrence was a craggy, bearded South African with a passion for nature. They met in a taxi queue in London, where both were travelling on business. “In that chance moment my life completely changed forever,” she says, speaking from Thula Thula. “Without it, I would probably still never have seen an elephant.”

Lawrence soon persuaded Françoise to move to South Africa and, in 1999, the couple opened the reserve. Lawrence then talked her into adopting a herd of highly dangerous wild elephants. The animals were wreaking havoc in the region and putting themselves in constant danger of being shot. At first, the troubled animals charged any human who approached them, but Lawrence developed such a close bond with them he earned the nickname ‘The Elephant Whisperer’. Over the years, they grew in numbers from nine to 29.