Zoo

Zoo is a book by Louis MacNeice. It was published by Michael Joseph in November 1938, and according to the publisher's list belongs in the category of belles lettres. It was one of four books by Louis MacNeice to appear in 1938, along with The Earth Compels, I Crossed the Minch and Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay. Zoo is primarily a book about London Zoo. During the writing of the book, from May to August 1938, Louis MacNeice was living in Primrose Hill Road, London, in a maisonette overlooking Primrose Hill and a short distance from London Zoo. (In the last chapter of the book, MacNeice notes that: "As I write this on Primrose Hill I can hear the lions roaring in the Zoo.") According to the blurb on the flap of the dust jacket, Zoo "contains impressions of the Zoo from a layman's point of view, and impressions of the visitors; information about the keepers and feeding of the animals (and visitors); discussion of the Zoo's architecture and general organisation; and special studies of animals." The book also contains descriptions of Whipsnade Zoo, Bristol Zoo and the new Paris Zoo in the Bois de Vincennes, together with a number of "digressions" - short descriptions of the lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon, cricket matches at Lord's, and a week-end visit to Northern Ireland. Zoo is illustrated with drawings, mainly in carbon pencil, by the English artist Nancy Coldstream (later Nancy Spender), under her maiden name of Nancy Sharp. Nancy Coldstream had earlier provided illustrations for I Crossed the Minch, a book on the Hebrides by Louis MacNeice.