Writers' Talks at ZSL London Zoo
14 May - 17 Sept
7pm - 9pm (doors 6.30pm)
Tickets: £12
ZSL presents a series of Writers Talks held within the animal houses of ZSL London Zoo.
ZSL conservation scientists and keepers team up with leading writers to talk about animals in different venues at ZSL London Zoo. In the animal’s presence, the writer responds to it imaginatively and the ZSL expert talks about its ecology and conservation.
The audience will be able to ask questions of author, scientist and keeper and have books signed over a glass of wine.
(ticket includes access to ZSL London Zoo and animal house, Writers Talk and a glass of wine or soft drink)
Tues 11th June: Helen Dunmore on Sumatran tiger in Tiger Territory.
Featuring ZSL Head of Regional Progrmmes: Sarah Christie - ZSL Conservation Dept.
Chaired by Ruth Padel
Why the tiger? "The solitary, charismatic tiger haunts the landscape of imagination from our earliest childhood." - Helen Dunmore
(Please note there are a limited number of tickets available)
Thurs June 20th: Glyn Maxwell on Mallorcan midwife toad in Amphibians (in the
Reptile House).
Featuring ZSL Team Leader of Herpetology: Ben Tapley - ZSL Institute of Zoology
Chaired by Ruth Padel
Why the Mallorcan Midwife Toad? 'Alytes muletensis' is beautiful and vulnerable, as well as being one of those rare animal species where the male does something surprisingly helpful - carries the eggs around for the female. But most of all I thought I'd write about it because until 1979 its story was thought to be over, and it isn't. So now I can help to tell it." - Glyn Maxwell
(Please note there are a limited number of tickets available)
Tue July 16th: Ruth Padel on hummingbirds, bleeding heart dove and amethyst starling in Blackburn Pavilion.
Featuring ZSL Zoologist: tbc
Chaired by Martin Rowson
Why these tropical birds? “When I had my tonsils out aged seven I was given a pack of wild animal cards which included four hummingbirds. They have stayed with me ever since. As in Emily Dickinson’s poem, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” Birds are all around us, inhabitants of two worlds, land and air, they disappear to other worlds and come back, weaving the world together. but they are also the marker of the health for the environment. I wanted tropical birds for the centre of the world, the centre of biodiversity and these three birds in the Blackburn Pavilion seem to me to encapsulate all that.” - Ruth Padel
(Please note there are a limited number of tickets available)
Tue 27th Aug: Mark Haddon on Galapagos tortoises in Giants and Dragons.
Featuring ZSL Head Keeper: Sebastian Grant - ZSL Herpetology Dept.
Chaired by Ruth Padel
Why the Galapagos tortoise? "Is it sentimentality or are there parts of our humanity which we can understand only through our relationship with certain animals? The tiger, the horse, the tortoise, the eagle, the bear, the wolf, this will be a talk about some or all of these interconnected things: giant tortoises, Charles Darwin, longevity, animal minds, disability, zombies, silence, the storage of nuclear waste". - Mark Haddon
(Please note there are a limited number of tickets available)
Tue 17th Sept: Andrew O'Hagan on Asian tapir next to Tiger Territory.
Featuring ZSL zoologist: tbc
Chaired by Ruth Padel
Why the Malaysian Tapir? “I love the Malaysian Tapir. There's one in particular at London Zoo. He looks like me. And he has that special skill some people attribute to dogs: he appears to know me. At a difficult time in my 30s, when a family member was sick and the afternoons seemed too long and too cold, I would often cross the bridge from my office in Primrose Hill and go to see the Tapir. There he was, my other half, long-nosed, nice-eyed, easy to hurt, and mellow. I knew we'd be friends forever. And we are.” - Andrew O'Hagan
(Please note there are a limited number of tickets available)
Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
is an international scientific, conservation and educational
charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the
worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats.
For more information please email arts@zsl.org
