Short Bio of Speaker

Lynn Santer’s first novel, Sins of Life, was the best-selling title for Minerva Press (UK) in 1999. Since then this prolific writer has written and ghostwritten thirteen books and twenty feature screenplays, including the controversial bestsellers Land of the Free and Professor Midnight. Hollywood veterans have optioned her feature screenplays and her short film and live theatre productions have won numerous awards.

Lynn’s list of celebrity clients, who have commissioned her to write their deeply personal stories, includes:

 Enigmatic Australian adventurer, conservationist, and forerunner to Steve Irwin, Alby Mangels,
 Saddam Hussein’s former personal pilot, Captain Ali Al-Wahabi,
 World-champion figure skater, Jayson Sutcliffe
 Heroism award winning search and rescue pilot, Rosemarie McRae
 Multi awarded humanitarian, medical doctor, Doctor Albert Gewargis, and
 Renowned psychic, Monica Hamers-Ward.

Born and raised in London, Lynn has been a crusader for causes since she was a small child, winning her first award for animal welfare when she was just eleven years old.  She has travelled the world and played a hands-on role in hot spots of Africa to help preserve the endangered big cats that are her passion in life. In this capacity, she has worked with many famous names, including:

 Virginia McKenna, who played Joy Adamson in the immortal classic Born Free and who now runs the Born Free Foundation www.bornfree.org.uk,
 Lynn’s close friend, Tippi Hedren, Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary and ageless star of The Birds, who now runs The ROAR Foundation and who is involved with Lynn is adapting Land of the Free into a motion picture www.shambala.org,
 Roger Gale, MP (UK), past Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and current Chairman of the Conservative Animal Welfare Group, and
 Meryl Harrison, past Chief Inspector with the Zimbabwe SPCA, honoured for bravery by the International Animal Welfare League, the BBC in the UK and the International RSPCA. Rotary also have bestowed their highest non-Rotarian honour on her, The Paul Harris Award.

In 2001, Lynn was responsible for bringing together a team from across three continents and two hemispheres to plan a covert operation with ex Special Forces commandos. Together they exposed brutal atrocities against endangered big game by some of the wealthiest high profile Americans. Their successful operation resulted in a major cover story on the Nine Network’s high rating The Sunday Program in September, 2006. The fictionalization of this story formed the basis of her bestseller, Land of the Free. 

Lynn’s passion for wildlife causes has been a part of her life since was a small child watching her father’s homemade David Attenborough style wildlife documentaries in the attic cinema of their London home.  Since the age of 11 years Lynn has been winning awards for her wildlife conservation efforts including:

• The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals Award for Outstanding Effort, 1972
• An invitation from the World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA) to inspect their big bear sanctuary in outback Turkey, 1998
• Honorary Life Membership of The AfriCat Project, 2000
• An invitation to be a celebrity judge at the RSPCA’s “Million Paws Walk”, 2002, 2003, and 2007
• Letter of Appreciation from The Humane Society, 2003
• Lynn designed WWF’s (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) 25 years in Australia celebrations at Tiger Island, Dreamworld, on the Gold Coast of Australia (where Lynn also works to help support The Endangered Tiger Trust), 2003
• Outstanding Service to Wildlife Award from Margo’s Animal Sanctuary, 2004
• Medallion of Appreciation from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), 2004
Her literary and production awards include:
• The American Chamber of Commerce Theatrical Production of the Year, 1992
• Her first novel was the best selling title for Minerva Press (UK), 1999
• The Launch Film Festival Best Independent Film of the Year, 2002
• And she has been a finalist in The Moondance Film Festival

TOPICS

TOPIC: Endangered species/hunting
TOPIC Title: Land of the Free
Target Audience:  Adults everywhere
Level of Sophistication:  General/Intermediate/Advanced
Duration of Talk: Can be tailored to suit requirements

It is requested that any presentation include book sales and signings of Lynn’s novel “Land of the Free”.
It is a requirement that a 13 minute DVD be played as part of the presentation that might upset some viewers – it contains some of the actual covert footage and documentation obtained of brutal atrocities against endangered big game by some of the wealthiest men on earth.

List of connected topics:

Hunting
Poaching
Endangered species
Conservation
The environment

Synopsis of Presentation:

I first fell in love with the big cats watching my father’s home-made, David Attenborough style, documentaries in the attic cinema of our London home.  When I started earning a living I donated a percentage amount of my income to charity.  As I earned more I donated more until I came to the attention of WSPA (World Society for Protection of Animals).  As a result of their contact with me I graduated from donor to fundraiser.  Becoming a fundraiser made me painfully aware of not only how big the problems are, but how diverse they are, where I was blissfully psychologically removed from this as a passive donor.  It was overwhelming, in fact almost suicidally depressing, so they only way I felt I could cope was to focus (perhaps selfishly) on a name, a face and a personality whose life I knew I could change.

I became one of WSPA’s top three UK fundraisers in the UK in 1998, and from there went on to become solely involved with their big cat project in Namibia, Southern Africa, “The AfriCat Foundation” for many years (and was made an honorary life member as a result).  In Nov 1999 (one of those magical critical moments) I visited Hollywood with my writing projects, where I met Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary star of “The Birds”, Melanie Griffith’s mum, and big cat conservationist, Tippi Hedren.  From there decided I would bring Tippi out to Australia (where I was then living) to front a series of high profile awareness raising events to help The AfriCat Foundation and The Roar Foundation.  While this was in the planning phase I was contacted by Meryl Harrison, then the chief inspector of the Zimbabwe National SPCA, and honoured by almost every wildlife group in the world for her bravery.

Meryl made me aware that Safari Club International, the largest hunting group in the world, with such luminaries in their membership as George Bush Snr and General Norman Schwartzkopf, had tried to bribe and cajole various foreign governments to overturn bans they had seen fit to put in place on protecting their endangered species, not just to hunt them but to hunt them by methods so brutal that even other hunters objected.  In many countries they happily failed.  In some they did not.  Even in the middle of all I was doing I couldn’t do what I knew everyone else would – nothing.

After being dismissed by CNN, 60 Minutes and the BBC in the UK (although to be fair the BBC said they had tried to get footage but their stringer had been brutalised and thrown out of the country as a result) my only option was to somehow get the visual and documented evidence to break the story myself!!

Behind the glitz and glamour of the high profile events, I brought Meryl out from Africa to meet Tippi and hired a group of ex Special Forces commandos to plan an undercover mission to get the evidence we needed to break the story.  Really!!!!

Meryl was nearly axed to death.  Tippi had her life threatened.  And I was vilified in the media as a charlatan because they knew I couldn’t reveal what we were really trying to do behind the scenes.  When we obtained the evidence we decided the only way to really make a splash that stood a chance of actually changing legislation (which Tippi is campaigning for in the US) was to make a film in the ilk of “Born Free” and “Gorillas in the Mist” that would stay in peoples’ hearts and minds forever.

FIVE YEARS later (Sept, 2006) Channel Nine’s high rating “The Sunday Program” broke the story (which is still live on the Channel Nine website today) and as a result A-List Australian producer/director, Bruce Beresford, wants to make the film, and he is now looking for an initial investment of $AUD75,000 to kick start the project.

More information available upon request.

Who Should Attend :

Everyone

How you will benefit :
Attendees will discover, perhaps for the first time, how the rich and shameless are blatantly bribing and cajoling foreign governments to overturn their own legislation that they have seen fit to put in place to protect their endangered species by not only hunting them (which is bad enough) but by hunting them by methods that are so brutal even some other hunters object to the methods. Several layers of cruelty are involved, and one particular member of the Safari Club (the largest hunting group in the world) paid $100 Million to the Smithsonian Institute (that should be above reproach) to bring in an animal he had shot where the species was so rare (only 400 on earth) that unless it was imported into the US under the guise of research who would not have been permitted to have the animal as a trophy head on his wall. There are ways to send messages to these people that this is not acceptable behaviour and begin to turn the tide.



Classification:

Awareness of the plight of our fellow inhabitants of this beautiful planet and what we can do to help.