Jul 24, 2013

My Animal Kingdom, One by One

by David Taylor

This is the first book I read by David Taylor, and it got me hooked on the author. He's a wildlife veterinarian, who worked mostly for zoos and owners of private animal collections, during the late 1950's through the sixties. I remember thinking when I first started reading Taylor, finally an author who lives up to the comparison to James Herriot. So many books about animals (vets in particular) claim to be as good as Herriot, and none every quite matched up until now. Taylor's books are engaging, humorous, and include all kinds of interesting facts about wild animals and their medical treatment, seamlessly woven into the story. I enjoy them a lot.

Unfortunately, this is one volume I haven't been able to get my hands on again (I intend to have all his books in my personal library, some day) so I can't relate any individual stories of the animals, because I no longer remember them clearly. I will be eager to read it again someday. Have any of you read his books?

Rating: 3/5......... 196 pages, 1984

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read him, but my daughter is getting more and more interested in zoos and animals (she has been for many years now), so I think I will look for this book and others by him, for her to read when she gets older. Thanks for the write up, Jeanne :-) I know I saw his books many years ago. I read all the Herriot books too, and Gerald Durrell books on animals, my mother and sister did also.

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  2. Gerald Durrell is another favorite author of mine! I've managed to collect all of Herriot's books and now am working on completing my colletion of Durrell and Taylor (harder to come by, it seems).

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