Les Augres Manor on the island of Jersey is the headquarters of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (originally Jersey Zoo) and is the Menagerie Manor of the title. The book is about the founding of the zoo and the trials and tribulations of working with zoo animals – and visitors. Each chapter of Menagerie Manor…
When people complain about globalization, they’re often complaining about the increasing dominance of Western, i.e. American, culture. Many theories have been advanced on why the West ‘rules’. Some are long-term lock-in – the West rules because it had Greek democracy or the Renaissance. Some are short-term accident – the West just happened to have an…
One Summer covers events in the USA from May to September 1927. It starts with a fire in a brand new, 38-storey hotel, an event that drew an estimated 100,000 spectators. Nowadays a video would be posted on YouTube. How things change in 90 years! Bryson quickly moves on to the various attempts to fly…
Gai-jin is set in Japan in 1861. It starts with an attack by samurai on a small group of Europeans who are riding along the Tokaido road near Yokohama. One man is killed and another two injured, one seriously. The seriously injured man is Malcom Struan, grandson of Dirk Struan from Tai-pan Gai-jin is a…
