What do you think?
Rate this book
The Tower Menagerie : The Amazing True Story of the Royal Collection of Wild Beasts
When King Henry III was given three leopards by his new brother-in-law, Frederick, the Holy Roman Emperor, he ordered -- in desperation -- that they be sent to the Tower of London, his great fortress by the bank of the Thames. After all, where does one keep such things? Soon after the leopards' arrival in 1235 they were joined by an even greater wonder, a huge Norwegian polar bear which was encouraged to catch its own food from the river to save on upkeep expenses. And over the next 600 years -- until the menagerie was closed down by Wellington in 1835, a few years before it became clear he had an interest in the soon-to-open London Zoo -- the Tower played host to thousands more exotic creatures, all brought from overseas by returning explorers or VIP guests. of the menagerie and the legion of Great and Good who came to behold its wonders, from William Blake, who came to look at the 'tygers', to John Wesley, who played his flute to the Tower lions in an attempt to establish if they had souls. Fascinating and insightful in equal measure, THE TOWER MENAGERIE is both an intriguing survey of our changing attitudes to animals and a hugely entertaining canter through six centuries of British history.
288 pages, Paperback
First published February 2, 2004
3 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Hahn
134 books37 followersBritish writer, editor and translator; author of a number of works of non-fiction, including biographies, history, and reading guides and for children and teenagers.
His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He is also the translator of Pelé's autobiography, and of work by novelists José Luís Peixoto, Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares and others.
A former chair of the Translators Association and national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, he is currently chair of the Society of Authors and on the board of trustees of a number of organisations working with literature, literacy and free expression, including English PEN. He is one of the judges for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
adapted from Wikipedia.
His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He is also the translator of Pelé's autobiography, and of work by novelists José Luís Peixoto, Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares and others.
A former chair of the Translators Association and national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, he is currently chair of the Society of Authors and on the board of trustees of a number of organisations working with literature, literacy and free expression, including English PEN. He is one of the judges for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
adapted from Wikipedia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 21, 2019
“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.” Cecil Frances Alexander
A unique and charming book about the wild animals kept in the London Tower for over 600 hundred years, starting in the medieval age, 1200's until 1835. British writer, Daniel Hahn does an amazing job considering the lack of written resources about the exotic animals that lived in the Tower.
I had heard about the famous Norwegian polar bear, wearing a long leash, who used to dine for his supper in the Thames River but I had no idea there was such a variety of beasts from around the world. In medieval times, the wealthy royalty liked to give each other rare beasts as special gifts and saw the animals as symbols of power. So they kept lions and tigers but also zebras, alligators, bears and kangaroos from all over the world. It became so popular as entertainment and curiosity that soon over 150 animals including giraffes, rhinos, eagles, porcupines, horses, birds, camels, lynxes, monkeys, wolves, all kinds of reptiles and elephants were being kept. It became Britain's first zoo.
In the early 1200's the “Royal Menagerie” was started by King John and over the years as the British royals were gifted animals, the collection grew and grew. A large male African elephant, never seen before in Britain, was given to King Henry lll from King Louis lX of France. The public loved it and crowded around the Tower to see it.
In the 16th century, the royalty decided to make the menagerie open to the curious public. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a terrible mistake as unlucky members of the public and some of the new animal handlers died due to mauling from the wild animals. They had a completely furnished room in the tower called “The Monkey Room” where a little boy died after being attacked by them in 1810.
There are entertaining stories in this book of the animal keepers who had very little understanding of just how to take care of their exotic charges, making bizarre choices in just how to feed and take care of them. The elephants were given wine on a daily basis but only in winter, the ostriches were fed nails (because they needed iron) and the lions were considered to be 200 to 300 years old. There also existed both unicorns and dragons that just hadn't been captured yet.
In 1835, the Tower's remaining animals were moved to the soon-to-open London Zoo in Regent's park. There was concern over the animals welfare since the animal mortality rate was very high. I recommend this book if you enjoy British history and especially if you love London Tower history. Four Stars.
A unique and charming book about the wild animals kept in the London Tower for over 600 hundred years, starting in the medieval age, 1200's until 1835. British writer, Daniel Hahn does an amazing job considering the lack of written resources about the exotic animals that lived in the Tower.
I had heard about the famous Norwegian polar bear, wearing a long leash, who used to dine for his supper in the Thames River but I had no idea there was such a variety of beasts from around the world. In medieval times, the wealthy royalty liked to give each other rare beasts as special gifts and saw the animals as symbols of power. So they kept lions and tigers but also zebras, alligators, bears and kangaroos from all over the world. It became so popular as entertainment and curiosity that soon over 150 animals including giraffes, rhinos, eagles, porcupines, horses, birds, camels, lynxes, monkeys, wolves, all kinds of reptiles and elephants were being kept. It became Britain's first zoo.
In the early 1200's the “Royal Menagerie” was started by King John and over the years as the British royals were gifted animals, the collection grew and grew. A large male African elephant, never seen before in Britain, was given to King Henry lll from King Louis lX of France. The public loved it and crowded around the Tower to see it.
In the 16th century, the royalty decided to make the menagerie open to the curious public. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a terrible mistake as unlucky members of the public and some of the new animal handlers died due to mauling from the wild animals. They had a completely furnished room in the tower called “The Monkey Room” where a little boy died after being attacked by them in 1810.
There are entertaining stories in this book of the animal keepers who had very little understanding of just how to take care of their exotic charges, making bizarre choices in just how to feed and take care of them. The elephants were given wine on a daily basis but only in winter, the ostriches were fed nails (because they needed iron) and the lions were considered to be 200 to 300 years old. There also existed both unicorns and dragons that just hadn't been captured yet.
In 1835, the Tower's remaining animals were moved to the soon-to-open London Zoo in Regent's park. There was concern over the animals welfare since the animal mortality rate was very high. I recommend this book if you enjoy British history and especially if you love London Tower history. Four Stars.
June 17, 2019
A bit lacking in actual substance on the Menagerie and its animals, but I think that's due more to the lack of historical documentation for much of its history than to Hahn's writing. While he did seem to be overly wordy and parenthetical, and much of the history bounced around, Hahn did his best with the scarce record of the Menagerie and provided insights into how the animals there affected various other aspects of history.
Not what I had been hoping it would be, but if you're quite interested in the Tower of London or the evolution of zoos/animal parks/animal welfare, this is a worthy read.
Not what I had been hoping it would be, but if you're quite interested in the Tower of London or the evolution of zoos/animal parks/animal welfare, this is a worthy read.
July 6, 2012
An example of an author ruining an otherwise fascinating book by interrupting themselves with too many footnotes, parentheses and tangents. Aspiring writers will learn more from the style mistakes than the subject matter.
That aside, The Tower Menagerie is illustrative and entertaining. There is a certain sense of glee that comes from books like that as the reader gets many of the benefits and fun that come with exotic animals without any of the danger. For instance, the polar bear that ate its breakfast from the Thames each morning or the lions citizens thoughts to 200-300 years old. The book is a bit outdated - it doesn't mention the piles of animal bones (including a few lions) archaeologists discovered buried in moat around the Tower but is otherwise worth picking up from a 3rd Party seller for a few dollars.
That aside, The Tower Menagerie is illustrative and entertaining. There is a certain sense of glee that comes from books like that as the reader gets many of the benefits and fun that come with exotic animals without any of the danger. For instance, the polar bear that ate its breakfast from the Thames each morning or the lions citizens thoughts to 200-300 years old. The book is a bit outdated - it doesn't mention the piles of animal bones (including a few lions) archaeologists discovered buried in moat around the Tower but is otherwise worth picking up from a 3rd Party seller for a few dollars.
May 1, 2023
Very different from what I expected, instead of stories about the animals of the tower, their transport, maybe even where they came from and how they were obtained, memoirs of their personalities, etc, this is all about the People, the kings and other nobles who owned the creatures. There's more about the animal keeper's salaries and the building itself than any animals, what is included is flat and glossed over and mostly lions. I appreciated the look at animal rights at the end of the book however.
Good if you like architectural history or British kings but not what animal lovers are looking for.
Good if you like architectural history or British kings but not what animal lovers are looking for.
May 14, 2016
This is a jolly romp through history, lots of bizarre facts and anecdotes. Fair too many footnotes though.
October 12, 2017
Rating: 3.5 Stars
The Tower Menagerie is a really fun, easy read which looks at an interesting part of London's history which less widely known. I have lived in London my entire life and did not even know there had been a menagerie in the Tower of London until last year. Hanh's book provides an adequately in-depth historical account of the Tower Menagerie alongside lots of fun bits of trivia, such as the Polar Bear who used to be walked down to the Thames to catch his own fish every day, and lots of illustrations from historical sources.
I thought Hanh also did a pretty good job at contextualization the Tower Menagerie within the wider history of the development of menageries, and later zoos, and London's history. Information was easily ordered into different thematic chapters such as Royal Gifts (the origins of menageries); Traveller's Tales (Empire); Visitors, Novelists, Preachers, Journalists, Fools and Spies (popular cultural representations of the menagerie); and Science and Sensibility (Enlightenment approaches to animals), for example.
Whilst there are a fair amount of footnotes in the book (which tbh... you should expect from a history book?..), I did not find them irritating in the way other reviewers did. Rather, they help to make a very busy book less cluttered by simply relocating superfluous information into the footnote which you don't have to look at unless you want to! I did downgrade this from 4 stars, however, as the book can get a little bit rambly at times and I found myself skimming over particular passages that seemed never-ending!
Despite already knowing a good deal about this topic, I found Hanh's pop history approach to the topic refreshing as it's not too heavy or boring, as many history books are, and I would definitely recommend this as an easy, fun read on the subject.
The Tower Menagerie is a really fun, easy read which looks at an interesting part of London's history which less widely known. I have lived in London my entire life and did not even know there had been a menagerie in the Tower of London until last year. Hanh's book provides an adequately in-depth historical account of the Tower Menagerie alongside lots of fun bits of trivia, such as the Polar Bear who used to be walked down to the Thames to catch his own fish every day, and lots of illustrations from historical sources.
I thought Hanh also did a pretty good job at contextualization the Tower Menagerie within the wider history of the development of menageries, and later zoos, and London's history. Information was easily ordered into different thematic chapters such as Royal Gifts (the origins of menageries); Traveller's Tales (Empire); Visitors, Novelists, Preachers, Journalists, Fools and Spies (popular cultural representations of the menagerie); and Science and Sensibility (Enlightenment approaches to animals), for example.
Whilst there are a fair amount of footnotes in the book (which tbh... you should expect from a history book?..), I did not find them irritating in the way other reviewers did. Rather, they help to make a very busy book less cluttered by simply relocating superfluous information into the footnote which you don't have to look at unless you want to! I did downgrade this from 4 stars, however, as the book can get a little bit rambly at times and I found myself skimming over particular passages that seemed never-ending!
Despite already knowing a good deal about this topic, I found Hanh's pop history approach to the topic refreshing as it's not too heavy or boring, as many history books are, and I would definitely recommend this as an easy, fun read on the subject.
September 28, 2021
I liked this book less the more I read it. At first, I thought the author had a great sense of humor which made such a fact-packed book fun to read. After awhile, though, his consistently mocking tone became really annoying and immature.
The author mocks anyone and anything he can't explain: the Bible, people who believe in (and probably saw) dragons/dinosaurs, etc. He makes sweeping blanket statements that assume everyone agrees with him, even though an ever-increasing amount of legit scientists see too many flaws with macro-evolution to make it seem plausible.
Many times throughout the book, he comes to completely wonky and opposite-of-common-sense conclusions. For instance, several times he talks about people seeing and drawing dragons---yet he insists they're not real. I don't know, but an eye witness is a pretty solid piece of evidence in a court trial---let alone many over several centuries. 3/4 or so in, I was ready to be done.
All that aside, I did learn a lot. I was especially intrigued by the bestiaries---I didn't know about those. I also thought it was really strange that more concern was given to animal welfare than to that of children during Victorian times.
The author mocks anyone and anything he can't explain: the Bible, people who believe in (and probably saw) dragons/dinosaurs, etc. He makes sweeping blanket statements that assume everyone agrees with him, even though an ever-increasing amount of legit scientists see too many flaws with macro-evolution to make it seem plausible.
Many times throughout the book, he comes to completely wonky and opposite-of-common-sense conclusions. For instance, several times he talks about people seeing and drawing dragons---yet he insists they're not real. I don't know, but an eye witness is a pretty solid piece of evidence in a court trial---let alone many over several centuries. 3/4 or so in, I was ready to be done.
All that aside, I did learn a lot. I was especially intrigued by the bestiaries---I didn't know about those. I also thought it was really strange that more concern was given to animal welfare than to that of children during Victorian times.
January 3, 2025
This was an interesting read, but slightly more focused on the people around the menagerie than I was looking for - I would have liked more information on the collection and the individual stories of the animals - but it may be that there isn't enough information still available for that to be a thing! It was still very interesting and a well put together narrative.
March 26, 2019
Free admission was given to anyone willing to offer their dog or cat as a contribution towards the lions' dinner
It did become necessary for the contents of the zoo to be eaten
It did become necessary for the contents of the zoo to be eaten
September 26, 2021
A story of how people came to learn about animals from overseas. Sad and brutal at times but often very funny.
August 19, 2022
A humorous, light history. Has some hard-to-read passages about the ways we humans are cruel to animals.
January 24, 2022
Meandering and wordy with little actual information on the menagerie and asides within asides. His writing style is wordy and horrendous. The book was poorly organized. Hahn warns that he doesn't write strictly chronologically, but he keeps going back to rediscuss events, so how is it organized exactly? There is a lot of "more on this later". The chapter titles seem to only very loosely tie the content of the chapters together (asides aside, of course).
Hahn is clearly very interested in the subject matter, and his enthusiasm shows through. Maybe a more heavy-handed editor was needed.
Hahn is clearly very interested in the subject matter, and his enthusiasm shows through. Maybe a more heavy-handed editor was needed.
May 5, 2009
It is unusual to find such a comprehensive history of a single zoo (particularly one that existed for so long) and Hahn does a wonderful job of making an entertaining telling. I'm particularly enjoyed the constant references back to the polar bear who supposedly was walked with leash and muzzle to fish in the Thames on a daily basis. The little historical anecdotes (such as the annual "washing of the lyons" on April 1st) turn what probably began as dry lists and occasional diary entries into an amusing story. My only real quibble is his attempt to give historical context to the menagerie events by large quantities of completely unrelated name- and event-dropping, but a lack of actual dates. I'm sure this was his attempt to make the story appeal to a wider audience, but for a zoo-oriented reader, it was unneeded distraction from the main story.
December 12, 2014
I read this about a year ago whilst researching for my dissertation. It was a concise and interesting history of the menagerie of the Tower of London. It was very helpful for me in that it mentioned the public opinion of the animals and how the tower presented the animals for the public. The writing didn't particularly make this subject as interesting and exciting as it could of, but it did the job. It was a useful resource for me and a small window into the menagerie I wish I could have seen.
November 1, 2010
This is a very easy to read look at 600 years of history and the animals held at the Menagerie in the Tower of London. Hahn goes off on some interesting tangents and sometimes tells us more than we really want to know (or once in a while send one racing to the internet to find out more about one of the tangents), but it is fun to read.
July 6, 2012
It was just OK. The premise is wonderful. I had no idea that the Tower of London housed a menagerie. It started off great. The image of a polar bear living on the banks of the Thames was quite colorful but it soon became repetitious and a real slog by the end. The writing was competent but not interesting enough for 200 plus pages.
August 1, 2021
Didn’t finish
August 14, 2007
The book reads like a novel. The random (and hilareous) anecdotes and sidebars pull you into the story and make you really think about the motivations and thought processes of your ancestors. Entertaining and educational. Doesn't get much better than that!
May 22, 2009
Title sort of explains it all doesn't it? Well in case you are teetering (spelling?) on wether or not to read it, I am giving you the green light. This is a strange and wonderful book, that will also give you a small history lesson. Well worth your time!
December 5, 2007
Super fascinating. A polar bear at the Tower? And much, much more.
March 12, 2008
yawn.
May 5, 2008
Wow, the things you find out about the Tower of London. Amazing,
November 6, 2010
Lots of great trivia, very easy to read. Thanks to Donna Jo for lending it to me.
February 8, 2016
Fairly passable pop history.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews