Churchill’s Menagerie: Winston Churchill and the Animal Kingdom

In this anecdotal treatise, Brendon (The Dark Valley) approaches a much-studied subject—Winston Churchill—from an unusual but rewarding angle, in terms of how animals figured into the renowned prime minister’s thoughts, words, and deeds. Brendon’s alphabetical bestiary, beginning with “albatross” and ending in “zoos,” touches on myriad dimensions of Churchill’s life, including his childhood as the only son of renowned parents, his days as a soldier, and the ups and downs of his political career. Viewed through a zoological lens, it proves a life filled with paradoxes: Churchill was an animal lover as well as an ardent hunter and fisherman, one who kept foxes as pets yet also relished the sport of foxhunting. The great pleasure of this work lies in reading Churchill’s animal-based metaphors and similes: dealing with a Communist is like petting a crocodile, one American politician is a “bull who carried around his own china shop,” and a cost-cutting Chancellor of the Exchequer is a “ravenous jaguar... prowling around our spending Departments in search of prey.” Despite an introduction, brief timeline, and extensive notes section, Brendon will quickly leave behind those only casually acquainted with Churchill. However, readers familiar with his life and times will relish Brendon’s idiosyncratic, far-ranging approach to profiling this “real British bulldog” and imperial “lion rampant.” (June)