Product Description(Amazon.com)
Set in the popular tourist attraction in present-day London, The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise is an exquisite story of love, loss, and a one-hundred-eighty-one-year-old pet.
Balthazar Jones has lived and worked in the Tower of London for the past eight years. Being a Beefeater is no easy job, and when Balthazar is tasked with setting up an elaborate menagerie of the many exotic animals gifted to the Queen, life at the Tower gets all the more interesting. Penguins escape, giraffes go missing, and the Komodo dragon sends innocent tourists running for their lives. Still, that chaos is nothing compared to what happens when his wife, Hebe, makes a surprise announcement. What’s a Beefeater to do?
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Anchor (August 23, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030747691X
ISBN-13: 978-0307476913
My Thoughts: If you like reading about England's history, this is a great book for learning some interesting facts. I never knew what the function of the Beefeater's was until I read this book. From Wikipedia.......
"The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners in the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right, a point the Yeomen Warders acknowledge."
This book also is about the animals that are given to the Queen by heads of country's as gifts. The animals are usually put in the England Zoo, but they started a menagerie at the Tower of London. But it didn't work out, but Balthazar was in charge of the menagerie and he got attached to the animals. This book is also about Balthazar and Hebe, their love and loss, and trying to find each other again and put the love back into their marriage. Wonderful book!
This book is for my reading challenge.....What An Animal taking place over at Socrates Book Reviews.
Sounds like it could be a little humorous too!
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