We Bought a Zoo
by Benjamin Mee
HarperCollins
HK$104
The book cover and title may be cute, but the story within rattles with the hard nuts and bolts of life. When Britain's ramshackle Dartmoor Wildlife Park was put up for sale journalist Benjamin Mee, his siblings and their mother risked almost everything they owned to buy the property and its 200 animals. Mee, his wife Katherine and their two young children would live on the property and rebuild the business. The trouble with the plan was that all were new to animal husbandry (although Mee was a specialist in animal behaviour). Not only that, but the author's wife was dying from brain cancer. We Bought a Zoo chronicles the everyday hassles of managing and rejuvenating the park - no mean feat when you have inexperienced staff and animals (such as a jaguar and a wolf) that like to escape. Mee made the most of the experience by having the BBC document the zoo's revamp. Unfortunately, despite the interesting challenges his family faced, the book sometimes loses sight of the extraordinary and is weighed down by the mundane. If it ever makes it to the big screen, Mee would do well to allow his animals bigger roles than they have here.