The Jungle Doctor books were written by Paul White, who spent some time in Africa working in a Christian Missionary Service hospital, often in very trying conditions. He collected stories of his own and his successors' experiences and compiled them into a series of books and allegorical fiction.
Although the books are "fictionalised" accounts, the events in the stories really did happen. They just didn't always happen in the order given in the story, or some unimportant details may have been changed for readability.
The original books were written in first-person narrative and included occasional phrases using the local tribal language and expressions, followed by the English translation, but more recent editions have been re-written in the third person and unnecessary usage of the local language has been omitted.
Some of the allegories have also been made into children's picture-books.
Books in the Jungle Doctor series:
- Doctor of Tanganyika: Various stories.
- Jungle Doctor: Various stories.
- Jungle Doctor On Safari: Visiting various outpost clinics.
- Jungle Doctor Operates: Mostly about various operations under difficult conditions.
- Jungle Doctor Attacks Witchcraft: Most of the witch doctors practice quackery and some practice actual Satanism.
- Jungle Doctor's Enemies: Could be called "The Witch Doctors Strike Back".
- Jungle Doctor Meets a Lion: Meet a young man named Simba (Lion).
- Jungle Doctor To The Rescue: Various kinds of rescue, mostly from disease or accident.
- Jungle Doctor's Case-Book: Various stories.
- Jungle Doctor and the Whirlwind: Drugs and greed cause big problems at the worst possible time.
- Eyes on Jungle Doctor: The Doctor isn't really qualified to do cataract operations, but there's nobody else available.
- Jungle Doctor Looks For Trouble: And tries to fix it.
- Jungle Doctor Goes West: For once the doctor needs a doctor, then goes on a safari with friends which turns into a Busman's Holiday.
- Jungle Doctor Stings a Scorpion: One particular Witch Doctor is known as The Scorpion.
- Jungle Doctor Hunts Big Game: But the big game the Doctor most wants, is hunted with The Doctor's Bible, not a gun.
- Jungle Doctor On The Hop: Bubonic Plague and an unwanted 12yo boy. One is destroyed, the other given hope.
- Jungle Doctor's Crooked Dealings: Continuance of "On The Hop", the boy and the Doctor help to untwist the crooked, especially people.
- Jungle Doctor Spots A Leopard: A leopard begins hunting men instead of monkeys.
- Jungle Doctor Pulls A Leg: Jungle doctor fights against a culture which condemns the disabled as both "marked by the displeasure of the ancestors" and useless.
- Jungle Doctor Sees Red: The Jungle Doctor meets the Wadoyek, a people who are fiercly independent and distrustful of outsiders.
Allegorical works:
- Jungle Doctor's Fables: Allegories, African style.
- Jungle Doctor's Monkey Tales: More allegories African style, about monkeys.
- Jungle Doctor's Tug-Of-War: An allegory for choosing good vs evil.
- Jungle Doctor's Hippo Happenings: A hippo can forget about his own troubles by helping others with their own.
- Jungle Doctor's Rhino Rumblings: A lesson about being too proud and how humbling yourself can get you more friends.
