The Life that Began the Adventures of Jane Goodall

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London, England on April 3, 1934. Her parents were Mortimer Morris-Goodall, and Vanne Morris-Goodall. Vanne was a novelist, while Mortimer was a businessman. Jane started her fascination with animals at the early age of four. She started her fascination by trying to figure out how hens laid eggs. Although, Jane's fascination to Chimpanzees started when her father gave her a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee.

The Life that Began the Adventures of Jane Goodall

At the ages of eight and ten, Jane got early influenced by "Dr. Dolittle", and "Tarzan of the Apes". After Jane got influenced by "Tarzan of the Apes", she always dreamed of traveling to Africa to live with wild animals, and write books about them, and her experiences. Many boys and girls at her age in the 1940's laughed at her dream, and that only made her more ambitious. Her mother Vanne strongly supported her dream, while giving Jane advice such as "If you want to achieve something difficult, then you will have to work hard, take advantage of every opportunity, and never give up". This one saying from her mother took her all the way to Gombe.

She had a much-loved dog, Rusty, a pony and a tortoise, to name a few of their family pets. Jane was unable to afford college after graduation and instead elected to attend a secretarial school in South Kensington, where she perfected her typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping skills. She retained her dream of going to Africa to live among and learn from wild animals, and so she took on a few jobs including waitressing and working for a documentary film company, saving every penny she earned for her goal.  At age 23, she left for Africa to visit a friend, whose family lived on a farm outside Nairobi, Kenya.