Everett was born and grew up in the northern territories of what was then known as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, a place renowned even today for its game. His backyard was the Chobe and the Okavango Swamps, where Everett was free to roam and where he learned to hunt with an old 7x57mm Mauser. 

As Everett says, "So I began my career as a hunter in November 1932. Unable to adjust to the world among my own people or even a life at home, I shed the trappings of civilization like a python sloughing its skin. I moved into the bush among the animals that accepted me in my role of predator. Elephants were the only lucrative animals to hunt. As I would be poaching, I would have to be selective and take on the largest ivory, for I could not afford to draw attention to my activities by leaving too many carcasses strewn around." 

Frederick William Everett is known as one of the last great professional ivory hunters still alive today. In fact Peter Capstick once said of Fred Everett, "He is truly one of the last grand characters of the African bush." Not many people can get a ringing endorsement like that! During his long hunting career, he hunted in Bechuanaland, Southern Rhodesia and the Wankie Game Reserve, Mozambique, and the Sudan, shooting scores of elephants in the process. This is the life story of a man who came to be known as Radephiri, father of hyenas. An unusual life and a great story.