The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise describes how the life of a beefeater living at the Tower of London is turned upside down when Her Royal Highness decides to restore the royal menagerie. The story is full of amusing mayhem as the old guards attempt to cope with the influx of royal animals, however it also deals with the deeper issues of grief and loss.

The characters of the book are downright quirky. There were moments when I laughed out loud at their absurdity. I often found myself chuckling throughout the day as I recalled their adventures. However, the beauty of this book was that it was immensely amusing without being complete fluff. In my opinion, a book can only be “good’ if it changes you in some way. A “good” book touches you and helps you to grow into a better person. Despite the silly, nonsensical setting and occurrences, this book met this requirement through its very real relationships.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It’s light, witty, quaint, and heartfelt. I can see myself reading it again and again.

Here is the “Cast of Characters” listed at the beginning of the book:

- Balthazar Jones: Beefeater, overseer of the Tower's royal menagerie, father to Milo, and collector of rain.

- Hebe Jones: Balthazar's wife who works at London Underground's Lost Property Office

- Mrs. Cook: Balthazar and Hebe's 180 + year-old tortoise - the oldest tortoise in the world

- Arthur Catnip: London Underground ticket inspector of limited height

- Rev. Septimus Drew: Tower chaplain who writes forbidden prose and pines for one of the residents

- Ruby Dore: Barmaid at the Tower's Rack & Ruin pub who has a secret

- Valerie Jennings: Hebe's eccentric colleague who falls for someone of limited height

- The Ravenmaster: Philandering Beefeater who looks after the Tower's ravens

- Sir Walter Raleigh: Former Tower prisoner and its most troublesome ghost

- Chief Yeoman Warder: Suspicious head Beefeater

- Oswin Fielding: Equerry to The Queen

- Samuel Crapper: Lost Property Office's most frequent customer

- Yeoman Gaoler: Deputy to the Chief Yeoman Warder who is terrorized by ghostly poetry at night