The Old Men at the Zoo

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I have dusty fly-blown memories of seeing the apocalyptic closing episodes of luminary British screenwriter Troy Kennedy-Martin's 1983 TV adaptation of "The Old Men at the Zoo" and had always resolved to read Angus Wilson's novel when time allowed. The nuclear aspect, or the prospect of war is so frightening at the present that its presence in the book could work to make it more interesting for some readers – after all, The Old Men at The zoo is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... - but it could deter others, such as the under signed

This is so serious, for they even calibrate to say that they could use tactical nuclear weapons, in other words, smaller devices, but still devastating ones, for to my knowledge, they are still more powerful that what they used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for in the meantime, they have ‘pe4fected the capabilities, to the point where the H bomb and others have incredible powers to destroy and kill humans… Doctor Korczak and the Children, The July Plot, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) – Myth Versus Reality, Stalingrad, Underground, Wear a Very Big Hat, Peter Luke, James MacTaggart, Cedric Messina, Don Taylor. Updated in March 2022. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-02-17 12:01:23 Boxid IA40061818 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier He worked as a reviewer, and in 1955 he resigned from the British Museum to write full-time (although his financial situation did not justify doing so) and moved to Suffolk. Wilson’s jaundiced narrative tone is infected at times with outright bitchiness; he does not love humans in general. It adds a sour readability to the novel. The following observation, as Simon strolls through the zoo, indicates his feelings about the British people:

This is definitely a change for Wilson, moving away from his bitter comedy of manners to what might best be described as a political fantasy-cum-allegory. Its themes are freedom and power and, particularly, where they intersect – what we might now call accountability though then would probably have been called responsibility. As it is Wilson, it is also a vicious satire – on politics and politicians, on civil servants, on sex and sexuality, on the European idea. But what it most is a particularly effective allegory on power and freedom. Five parts. Writer: Troy Kennedy Martin; Adapted from (novel): Angus Wilson; Producer: Jonathan Powell; Director: Stuart Burge

The work situation was stressful and led to a nervous breakdown, for which he was treated by Rolf-Werner Kosterlitz. He returned to the Museum after the end of the War, and it was there that he met Tony Garrett (born 1929), who was to be his companion for the rest of his life. Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 1.0000 Ocr_module_version 0.0.15 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-1300251 Openlibrary_edition Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-03-29 03:10:19 Autocrop_version 0.0.9_books-20210916-0.1 Boxid IA40413314 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The Old Men at The Zoo by Angus Wilson, author of the much more appreciated, fabulous Anglo-Saxon Attitudes http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/a...

It's not a very successful novel. The fundamental problem is that the future Wilson predicts is grounded in his 1940s experiences of the British Library and at Bletchley Park. In fact, that's being too kind to Angus. Women were doing crucial work at Bletchley ... why are they only making the teas in his imagined 1970s?