ZSL conservation scientists and keepers team up with leading writers to talk about the animals in ZSL London Zoo. Alongside the animals, the writers speak imaginatively about their responses to them and ZSL’s experts talk about their ecology and conservation.
The audience will be able to ask questions of author, scientist and keeper and have books signed over a glass of wine.
These unique evenings will be held within the animal houses of London Zoo.
ANDREW O’HAGAN
Andrew O’Hagan is an award-winning Scottish novelist, journalist and a non-fiction writer. His awards include Los Angeles Times Prize for his Booker-shortlisted novel Be Near Me and a Spirit of Scotland Award for his novel, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, told in the voice of a Maltese terrier given to Marilyn by Frank Sinatra.
Andrew is Creative Writing Fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow at The Zoological Society of London.
Why the Asian Tapir? “I love the Asian Tapir. There’s one in particular at London Zoo. He looks like me. And he has that special skill some people attribute to dogs: he appears to know me. At a difficult time in my 30s, when a family member was sick and the afternoons seemed too long and too cold, I would often cross the bridge from my office in Primrose Hill and go to see the Tapir. There he was, my other half, long-nosed, nice-eyed, easy to hurt, and mellow. I knew we’d be friends forever. And we are.” – Andrew O Hagaon
“A fine stylist and a penetrating analyst, elegant, funny and dark.” (Guardian)
Chaired by Ruth Padel
Ruth Padel is a British poet and writer with close connections to conservation, wildlife, Greece and music. She has published a novel, eight works of non-fiction and eight poetry collections, most recently The Mara Crossing, which mixes poems and prose to explore migration.
