Background
Michael Allin was born in 1944.
Michael Allin was born in 1944.
Michael's best-known film script was 1973's Enter the Dragon, a vehicle for the late martial arts star, Bruce Lee. Allin wrote or helped write the screenplays for several other films, but made his literary debut with 1998's Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris.
Allin also collaborated on the 1980 film version of the early film serial Flash Gordon. Allin's first book is a complete change of subject matter from his film work. Critics were much more generous with their praise of Zarafa than of Allin's previous writings.
Quotes from others about the person
"Michael Allin does a terrific job of chronicling the giraffe's remarkable pilgrimage," affirmed Carolyn T. Hughes in the New York Times Book Review. She also applauded him for making clear "the profound effect the animal had on the French people."
Speaking of the interactions between the Egyptians and the French involved in Zarafa's journey, David Crumm in the Detroit Free Press reported that "there is... a reassuring optimism in Allin's book that... cultural collisions do not have to breed hatred or violence." Malcolm Jones Jr. concluded in Newsweek that "in Allin's page-turning account of a time when even French sophisticates could still be spellbound by the sight of a giraffe, our own sense of jadedness is given a serious, giraffe-size kick."