Updated 19 October 2026

The best books to read before a gorilla trek are George Schaller’s The Year of the Gorilla (1964), the first detailed field study of mountain gorillas; Dian Fossey’s Gorillas in the Mist (1983); and Bill Weber and Amy Vedder’s In the Kingdom of Gorillas (2001), which tells how conservation and tourism turned the gorillas’ fate around.

For Uganda itself, a good travel guide such as Bradt’s Uganda, a field guide to East African birds, and novels such as Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s Kintu add depth to the trip. Reading even one of these changes how you see the hour with the gorillas.

Gorilla science and history

The Year of the Gorilla by George Schaller records his pioneering study in the Virunga volcanoes in 1959–1960, written in clear, engaging prose. It overturned the myth of the gorilla as a savage beast and laid the foundations for later research. Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey is her account of years at Karisoke in Rwanda, full of named individuals such as Digit and of her fight against poachers. It is personal and passionate rather than neutral. Read about Dian Fossey and Karisoke.

In the Kingdom of Gorillas by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder describes their work in Rwanda from the late 1970s, including the Mountain Gorilla Project that combined protection, education and tourism, the model later used in Uganda. It is a useful counterpoint to Fossey’s view. Woman in the Mists by Farley Mowat is a biography of Fossey drawing on her diaries. See our guide to how tourism helped save mountain gorillas.

Guides for the trip

A detailed travel guide helps with planning and background on parks, towns and history; Bradt’s Uganda guide by Philip Briggs is the most thorough English-language option and is regularly updated. For wildlife, a field guide to the birds of East Africa and one to the larger mammals of Africa, such as those by Jonathan Kingdon, are worth packing or carrying as apps. Read our guide to gorilla social behaviour to know what to look for in the hour with the family.

Uganda’s history and literature

To understand the country beyond the parks, try Ugandan writers. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is an acclaimed novel that follows a Ganda family curse across centuries of Uganda’s history. Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa portrays Uganda through the turbulent decades of the 1970s and 1980s. Giles Foden’s novel The Last King of Scotland, about Idi Amin’s regime, is widely read, though written by a British author. For the region around Bwindi, read our guides to the Batwa and the Bakiga.

Films and documentaries

If you prefer to watch, the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist dramatises Fossey’s story, and David Attenborough’s 1979 gorilla sequence in Life on Earth remains one of the best-known wildlife scenes on television. See our guides to the film and Attenborough and the gorillas.

Frequently asked questions