Conville & Walsh
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We Bought a Zoo
- Author: Benjamin Mee
- Category: Non-fiction Animals / Environment Narrative
- Publisher: HarperCollins (UK) / Weinstein (US)
- Pub date: 2 June 2008
- Length: 320 pages
About We Bought a Zoo
20th Century Fox feature film starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson
Chuck it all in and buy a zoo?
“Why not?” thought Benjamin Mee, unaware of the grim living conditions, creditors and escaped big cats that lay in wait…
In 2006 Benjamin Mee left an idyllic life in France to run a dilapidated zoo on the edge of Dartmoor complete with 200 wild animals. He had no previous experience of managing staff, or running a visitor attraction. Or of looking after animals. Nor had his wife, Katherine, his 76-year-old mother or his brother, all of whom he persuaded to join him in pursuing his dream. What they lacked in experience they made up for with enthusiasm and in July 2007, the Dartmoor Zoological Park, as it had become, was reopened to the public. The amazing story of how Ben and his family turned a dream into reality is told in WE BOUGHT A ZOO.
When Ben arrived at the zoo he found his extended family included African lions, Siberian tigers and European brown bears, not to mention wolves, monkeys, ostriches and snakes. Within days he was coping with a major ‘Code Red’ situation as the jaguar, Sovereign, executed a cunning escape plan. Luckily, his escape route led him straight into the tiger enclosure where he was recaptured some hours later but Ben knew that the dream could have ended there had the jaguar run off.
Escaped jaguars… big cats with toothache (the vet’s bill for dentistry was £8000!)… warring vervet monkeys… fighting off creditors securing loans from banks… These were just some of the problems that Ben had to deal with during the first few months.
However, none of them compared with the tragedy that struck the family soon after arriving in Devon.
Ben’s wife Katherine, having already survived and recovered from the removal of a brain tumour, became ill once more. Looking after her in her final days became a heartbreaking duty to add to the day-to-day complexities of running the zoo and preparing for the opening. In March 2007 Katherine died leaving Ben alone to bring up their two small children, Milo and Ella, as well as the ever growing menagerie of animals.
WE BOUGHT A ZOO charts the family’s attempts to rebuild the park, and their lives following Katherine’s death. It’s an amazing true story of following a dream and coping with personal tragedy which is both inspiring and at times deeply moving.
The family’s story was snapped up by a TV company who screened four hour-long episodes on BBC2 in Winter 2007. 20th Century Fox subsequently purchased the movie rights, with their feature film due for first release on 23 December 2011, starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.
About the Author
Benjamin Mee, a former bricklayer and decorator, returned to education in his early twenties in order to investigate animal intelligence. Ben studied psychology at UCL and wrote his dissertation on dolphin intelligence, after which his first article appeared in the Independent, while he was a student on the MSc in Science Journalism at Imperial College.
As the world preferred articles on health and DIY, Ben subsequently made his living as a contributing editor to Men’s Health magazine on the former subject, and as a Guardian columnist on the latter, until commissioned by Penguin to write a book on the Evolution of Humour in Man and Animals. It was whilst living in France and writing this book that the Dartmoor Zoological Park came up for sale…
Ben currently divides his time between running the busy zoo and raising his two children, Ella and Milo.