The Zoo: The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo
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By Isobel Charman
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How one man’s mad mission became one of the best-loved places in the world
The creation of a zoo in Dickensian London – when only one other existed across the world – is a story of jaw-dropping audacity. It is the story of trailblazing scientists, rival zookeepers and aristocratic naturalists collecting amazing animals from all four corners of the globe.
It is the story of a weird and wonderful oasis in the heart of a swirling city, and of incredible characters, both human and animal – from Stamford Raffles and Charles Darwin to Jenny the orang-utan and Obaysch the celebrity hippo, the first that anyone in Britain had ever seen.
Against a background of global Empire, domestic reform and industrialisation, this is a new history of a new world.
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