The writings of Richard Girling first came to my attention in 2014 when I read and reviewed his thoroughly captivating The Hunt for the Golden Mole; All Creatures Great & Small and Why They Matter. He followed this brilliant book with another in 2016 titled The Man Who Ate the Zoo Frank Buckland, Forgotten Hero of Natural History. This latter book never found its way to my desk, so it is not one I about which I can offer any meaningful comment beyond that I was rather disappointed to miss it as it sounds quite interesting. (I’ll certainly need to find a copy of it at some point for future reading.)
Fortunately, just this past fortnight an advance copy of Mr. Girling’s most recent work, The Longest Story; How Humans Have Loved, Hated and Misunderstood Other Species reached my desk for review. Delving far back into the history of the relationships between human and non-human animals, and examining – among other things – the glaring contradictions in how we understand and subsequently treat different species, he will likely be challenging his readers to consider deeply their own thoughts about and behaviors in relation to our non-human animal neighbors.
As I wrote back in 2014 about his Golden Mole, “The stories Girling tells are both interesting and memorable, and the questions he asks are provoking – they defy easy answers (sometimes they even defy complex ones).” I’m very much hoping to find this same level of narrative strength and intellectual rigor present in this new book.
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