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The Unexpected Truth About Animals

The Unexpected Truth About Animals

Brilliant natural history, starring lovesick hippos, stoned sloths, exploding bats and frogs in taffeta trousers...

Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Unexpected Truth About Animals, written and read by Lucy Cooke.

History is full of strange animal stories, invented by the brightest and most influential, from Aristotle to Disney, and they reveal as much about us and the things we believe as they do about the animals they misrepresent. We once thought that eels were born from sand, that swallows hibernated under water, and that bears gave birth to formless lumps that were licked into shape by their mothers.

Zoologist Lucy Cooke unravels many such myths, revealing the facts she’s uncovered while sniffing out vultures, snooping on sloths and stalking drunk moose.

The Unexpected Truth About Animals is in equal parts astonishing, illuminating and laugh-out-loud funny. Starring: feminist hyenas; perverted penguins, exploding bats and frogs in taffeta trousers...

'Eye-opening, informative and very funny!' - Chris Packham

Reviews

  • A bloody fabulous read. Thoroughly recommend.
    Sue Perkins (Twitter)

About the author

Lucy Cooke

Lucy Cooke is a fellow of Durham University, a National Geographic explorer, TED talker and award-winning broadcaster with a Masters in zoology from New College Oxford, where she studied under Richard Dawkins.
Her first book A Little Book of Sloth was a New York Times bestseller and spawned a major TV series for Discovery and a BBC Radio 4 documentary. The Truth About Animals, her first long-form book was shortlisted for the Royal Society prize and has been translated into nineteen languages. Her most recent book, Bitch: What Does it Mean to be Female? was cited as one of the best books of the year by both the Telegraph and the Guardian and was adapted into the BBC Radio 4 series, Political Animals.
She is a columnist for BBC Wildlife Magazine and has also written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, The Times, Telegraph and New Scientist amongst other publications. She is a sought-after public speaker and has written, produced, and presented documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery. She has presented on the BBC’s ‘Springwatch’ and is a regular on BBC Radio 4.
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