It is not very often that I get to read a book written by somebody I have met, and about a place that I know and love. The Dartmoor Wildlife Park was a favorite destination for a day out, long before Ben arrived on the scene, but as is the case at too many private zoos, I cannot say that the place was exactly a model of how a good zoo ought to be. Ben has turned it around and made it into what I always wanted it to be and here is a whole book about how he and his family did it. Selling up everything and moving to a place you don’t know is a big enough step, but buying a zoo surely takes it to the utmost!

There is plenty to laugh and cry over in here, quite an emotional rollercoaster in fact. From a heartbreaking description of his wife’s battle with cancer and a pithy exposé of the vicissitudes of the NHS, to animal escapes and red tape, there is a lot in here. Plenty about rescuing and running a zoo in modern Britain, animal behaviour and how it all goes wrong as well as ultimately right, anlong with a short section of color photographs of the denizens (human and animal) of the zoo. I am not normally an autobiography reader, but anybody who loves animals, zoos and a good, uplifting, easy-to-read book ought to enjoy this.