The Zoo

A rich, imaginative and original history, written with a film-maker's eye for detail, and starring a remarkable cast of characters. Short of asking the animals themselves, it's hard to think how this might be bettered

Dr Richard Barnett, author of 'Medical London'

Terrific. Charman flings open the doors of a cabinet stuffed with zoological and human curios, blows off the dust of a couple of centuries, and talks us expertly and entrancingly through each exhibit

Charles Foster, author of 'Being a Beast'

Astonishing

Daily Mail

Fascinating ... nostalgia, social and natural history and the ongoing need to change

Chris Packham

Delightful . . . Charman takes the story out of the cages and onto the smoggy, sometimes riotous streets of Victorian London, up and down the country and beyond its shores

Nature

As I always tell my students, if you wish to understand science you need to understand the people involved in its development. Whilst the animals in a zoo are rightfully the stars of the show - their supporting human cast is no less fascinating and it is this that Isobel Charman has so wonderfully captured in her book.

Prof. Robert J. Young, Chair in Wildlife Conservation, University of Salford

She succeeds in personalising the story, bringing to life this extraordinary episode in humankind's search for a better understanding of the natural world

Ian Critchley, Sunday Times

The book's structure and style is that of a historical novel or Victorian melodrama...it would all make a wonderful seven-part historical costume drama

Andrew Hartston, Daily Express

Charman possesses a proper historian's nose for a story and this is a good one

Sunday Express, John Lewis Stempel

Charming ... provides a fascinating Zoo's Who of the Victorian naturalists and wildlife enthusiasts who established a 'Noah's Ark' in the heart of the rackety capital

Evening Standard

What an incredible story ... a charming and lovely read ... a striking tale of discovery for the people involved and also for us ... you can give this book to anyone

Jonathan Ross

Charman crafts an affecting narrative of the first 25 years of the Zoological Society of London . . . The book is nuanced, often entertaining, and also tragic

Publishers Weekly

[A] sprightly tale of the London Zoo from its conception in 1824 to the death of its longtime president in 1851. As The Zoo engagingly shows us, caring for and observing caged beasts transformed our view of animals-and of ourselves

Wall Street Journal

Vivid, entertaining and scrupulously researched

New York Times

[A] vivid novelistic retelling . . . An impressive work of imagination and research, as well as a pleasure to read

PD Smith, The Guardian

A rich, imaginative and original history, written with a film-maker's eye for detail, and starring a remarkable cast of characters. Short of asking the animals themselves, it's hard to think how this might be bettered

Dr Richard Barnett, author of 'Medical London'

Deeply moving, fascinating and powerful

Sunday Mirror on 'The Great War'