Jamrach's Menagerie

Judy

Birch’s description of poverty-stricken London life would have had Dickens nodding in recognition. But when Jaffy’s long journey to the other side of the world begins, the story-telling moves up a gear. Life at sea on an old Victorian whaler is described in fascinating, sometimes electrifying detail. Jamrach’s commission to catch a dragon is in part financed by whaling en-route, and the passage where Jaffy’s novice crew, with only a couple of veteran hands to guide them, track and kill their first whale is bloodily repellent and utterly fascinating by turns.

So is the hunt for dragons when it finally, dramatically, takes place. We are, of course, talking about Kimodo dragons, which were not much more than a whispered legend in 19th Century Europe. They may not have wings or breathe fire, but Jaffy’s prey are lethally dangerous, and must be captured alive. The risks are terrifying.

But at the heart of this beautiful, hugely emotional story are the relationships between the men manning the great whaling ship. At times violent, at others exquisitely tender and caring, it is essentially a love story which, although entirely platonic, is deeply moving, even passionate. And the terrible ordeal suffered by the crew during their catastrophic return home is remorselessly laid bare. The fact it is a woman writing of men in extremis makes this all the more tender and exceptional a story.

Richard

This is an astounding piece of writing. Sometimes I thought I was reading the orphan child of Treasure Island and The Cruel Sea. Carol Birch has pulled off something little short of a masterpiece with Jamrach’s Menagerie and her imagination produces creatures infinitely more wonderful and terrifying than any of the animals that Mr Jamrach, a mid-19th Century collector of exotic wildlife, could hope to acquire.

Young Jaffy Brown is at the heart of what is a heart-stopping story. As a little boy, he is running down a London street when he comes face-to-face with an escaped Bengal tiger. Mesmerised by its beauty, and entirely unafraid, Jaffy gently strokes the creature’s nose. The tiger – fortunately, it has just been fed - responds by lazily flicking the child to the ground with one huge paw, and gently carrying him off it its jaws. (This is based on an actual event more than a century and a half ago when Mr Jamrach – yes, he existed – saved the situation by leaping on his newly-delivered big cat’s back).

So begins Jaffy’s new life, working at Jamrach’s Menagerie and developing what turns out to be a touching and instinctive rapport with freshly-captured wild animals from all over the world. So he is perfect, as a teenage boy, to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. A voyage to the southern hemisphere, to catch and bring home a dragon. A real one.