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By Molly Badham & Nathalie Evans with Maureen Lawless
Autobiography / Animals
Reviewed by: Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.Com
Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans have been running one of Britain’s
largest and best-loved zoos for nearly forty years. In this book
Molly recounts the story of its success from tiny beginnings when she
spotted a monkey in the window of her rival Nathalie’s pet shop,
through the small private menagerie at Hints to the present well stocked
zoo, full of rare and endangered animals of all types but most particularly
her beloved primates. These are the stars of it all; those gentle
giants the gorillas (not always all that gentle), the chimps of the
famous PG Tips adverts on British TV and the rare bonobos with their
matriarchal society and unique ways of settling disputes. Molly
tells of trips abroad in the name of publicity or to help endangered
animals, raising orphaned animals in her own home and the joys and heartaches
of sharing one’s life with our closest cousins. Molly and her two co-authors make this an easy to read and informative book that combines information, humor and autobiography in a highly pleasing way. It would be easy to get over sentimental about such an emotive subject, or to make the whole thing sound too much like a lecture but this never happens. I was honestly sorry when I came to the end of this delightful book. If you have seen the series Molly’s Zoo on TV or read and enjoyed the books of Gerald Durrell you will have some idea of what this book has in store. It should appeal to all who love animals and would like to find out more about what it is like to run a whole zooful of them. If this sounds like you then you will enjoy this one. |
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