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Frank Buckland was an extraordinary man – a surgeon, a natural historian, a sell-out lecturer, a bestselling writer, a museum curator… and a conservationist, before the concept even existed. Eccentric, revolutionary, popular, prolific, he was one of the nineteenth century’s authentic geniuses. He was obsessed by food security and finding ways to feed the hungry (the book recounts his many unusual experiments), and by protecting our fisheries (he can be credited with saving British fish from commercial extinction). He was one of the most original, far-sighted and influential natural scientists of his time, held as high in public esteem as Charles Darwin. The Man Who Ate the Zoo is no conventional biography, but rather a journey back into Buckland’s life, a hunt for this forgotten man. It sets Buckland’s thinking and achievements in a rounded historical context, but views this Victorian adventurer from a modern viewpoint. It is both a rollicking yarn – engaging, funny and provocative – and a celebration of the great age of natural science, one man’s genius and what, even now, can be learned from him.
Described as 'greedy and grasping, and raised from nothing', the Woodviles have had a bad press. 'Brought Up of Nought' investigates the family origins, explains the rise and fall of the senior branch, and how the junior branch rose to the highest levels of court society after struggling to establish itself in Northamptonshire. The family originally rose to the status of 'baron', but lost land over time as it descended to the gentry; however, the medieval wheel of fortune was to turn dramatically in favour of the junior branch in Northamptonshire. Early in the 15th century, Richard, the son of Richard Woodvile Esq., was placed in the service of John Duke of Bedford at his court in Rouen, which resulted in his secret marriage to the duke's young widow Jacquetta. In 1464, their daughter Elizabeth made an extraordinary marriage to Edward IV, which attracted great criticism, resulting in a period of slander that continues to this day. This book argues that the Woodvile's blackened reputation was the result of a campaign by Richard, Earl of Warwick who was jealous and eager to retrieve his position as 'kingmaker'.
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