The Zoo

February 6, 2017
Charman (The Great War) crafts an affecting narrative of the first 25 years of the Zoological Society of London through the stories of seven of its most influential contributors. She relates the tragedy of Stamford Raffles, the zoo’s founder and first president, who survived a fire that killed three of his children and burned his first menagerie to see his idea for the society come to fruition, only to die suddenly a few months later in 1826. Charman depicts Charles Darwin, a corresponding member of the Society, pondering links between species while studying the inhabitants of the Monkey House, and animal keeper Devereux Fuller proactively seeking to increase exotic imports, including a cameleopard (giraffe). Meanwhile Charles Spooner, the zoo’s veterinarian, contends with the heartbreaking problems of captivity, suicidal kangaroos, aggressive monkeys, and the taunting of animals by patrons wielding parasols. Charman provides historical and atmospheric details of the era through the eyes of her characters; the ever-evolving city was “a tangled mass of coaches, omnibuses and pedestrians... Westminster... glimpsed in snatches through heads and hats.” She writes her subjects’ interior monologues. The book is nuanced, often entertaining, and also tragic, as the Society faced massive mortality rates in its early years; the death of Tommy the chimpanzee is particularly brutal.

February 15, 2017
A whimsical work revisiting the English gentlemen of the early- to mid-19th century who envisioned the first Zoological Society of London.London-based TV producer and author Charman (The Great War: A Nation's Story, 2014, etc.) delves into an eclectic cast of characters who created London's first ZSL in 1826. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, returning home from a grueling stint in Singapore with the East India Company, resolved to create for London its own Jardin des Plantes, like the one he and his wife had admired in Paris. It would be, he decided, "a place of science, of investigation, of knowledge." A member of the Royal Society, Raffles galvanized the new ZSL and obtained the land for such a venture in The Regent's Park, designed by John Nash and located in the north of London. Upon Raffles' death in 1826, the young architect Decimus Burton took over the challenging project, which included the designing of buildings over five acres where "humans could comfortably, elegantly, enjoyably observe creatures." Indeed, writes Charman, Burton "was building for mankind, rather than for beasts," and it was a huge hit, open to the public for one shilling per head in 1828. It soon expanded through a tunnel taking visitors elegantly from one side of the road to the other (more illustrations or a map would have been welcome). In her charming, engaging narrative, the author deftly assumes the points of view of her characters, in the spirit of a Victorian novelist. These included the first medical attendant, Charles Spooner, who was eventually dismissed because of the high mortality rate of the exotic animals (the wet, cold English winters were a detriment to many of them), and Charles Darwin, a corresponding member of the ZSL when he returned from his Beagle exploration in 1836, keen to observe the animals himself. A deeply researched, terrifically entertaining exploration of the London Zoo "through the eyes of some of the people who made it happen."

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March 15, 2017

British writer, researcher, director, and producer Charman tells the story of the beginning of the London Zoo through the eyes of seven key people. During the early 1800s, little was known about how to keep wild animals healthy during captivity. Few other zoos existed, and knowledge was infrequently exchanged. At the time, no other zoos had a primarily scientific purpose. Sadly, this meant that many animals kept in the zoo died. Charman introduces readers to a host of animals, only to deliver news of their death and subsequent dissection and preservation shortly thereafter. However, the author succeeds in meeting her intention: reflecting upon the scientific knowledge of the time and giving readers a strong sense of the frustrations and challenges involved with scientific discovery. Among the seven profiled are ornithologist John Gould, architect Decimus Burton, and naturalist Charles Darwin. While all of the primary characters are real, Charman uses creative text and careful research to reimagine aspects of their personalities. VERDICT Recommended for anyone interested in zoology and the intersection of history and science.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

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