Chuck it all in and buy a zoo? Why not? thought Benjamin Mee, unaware of the grim living conditions, creditors and escaped big cat that lay in wait! A few years ago, Ben and his wife, Katherine, sold their small flat in Primrose Hill and moved to France to pursue their dream of restoring an old barn near Nimes. That dream then became much, much bigger for, last October, they moved with their two young children, Ben's 76 year-old mother and his brother, into a run-down zoo on the edge of Dartmoor which they had bought, and found themselves responsible for 200 animals including four huge tigers, lions, pumas, three massive bears, a tapir and a wolf pack. Ben's new extended family now included: Solomon, an African lion and scourge of the local golf course; Zak, the rickety Alpha wolf, a broadly benevolent dictator clinging to power; Ronnie, a Brazilian tapir, easily capable of killing a man, but hopelessly soppy; and Sovereign, a jaguar who is also a would-be ninja, and has devised a long term escape plan and implemented it. But tragedy was to strike for, in the midst of dealing with escaping wolves and jaguars, and troublesome adolescent vervet monkeys, Katherine, who had developed, and had removed, a brain tumour while in France, began to experience symptoms again. The prognosis was poor, and so Ben found himself juggling the complexities of managing the zoo and getting it ready for re-opening, and at the same time having to care for his rapidly deteriorating wife, their two young children, and their ever growing menagerie of animals. Ben's story will both move and entertain -- charting, simultaneously, the family's attempts to improve the animals' lives, the build-up to the Zoo's official reopening, as well as Katherine's decline, her final days, and how the family went on.

班傑明．密Benjamin Mee

英國《衛報》記者暨專欄作家，與妻子凱薩琳育有一子一女。曾在倫敦大學（University College London）研習心理學，稍後並在倫敦帝國大學（Imperial College）獲得科學新聞寫作碩士學位，對動物行為心理學深感興趣。在妻子罹患癌症後，班傑明舉家從法國遷回英國本土，與母親、三哥與妻子一起經營瀕臨荒廢的「達特摩爾野生動物園」（Dartmoor Wildlife Park），使其浴火重生，成為英國倡導自然保育、教育理念不遺餘力的「達特摩爾動物學園區」（Dartmoor Zoological Park）。在愛妻病逝後，班至今仍為該動物園經營者，而班傑明一家這段傳奇性的經歷也已被改拍為電影，2011年底將登上大螢幕。「達特摩爾動物學園區」網址：www.dartmoorzoo.org/