''Jamrach's Menagerie'' is a 2011 novel by

Carol Birch Carol Birch (born 1951) is an English novelist, lecturer and book critic. She also teaches creative writing. Life Birch was born in Manchester, England. Her parents had met in a wartime armaments factory. Her father, a metallurgist, also played ...

. The novel has been referred to as

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

, since it features certain real life characters, such as naturalist

Charles Jamrach Charles Jamrach (born Johann Christian Carl Jamrach; March 1815 – 6 September 1891) was a leading dealer in wildlife, birds and shells in 19th-century London. He owned an exotic pet store on the Ratcliffe Highway in east London – at the time ...

. The novel was short-listed for the 2011

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

."Two first time novelists make shortlist of six"
Book Prize website, 6 September 2011

Plot

At the age of eight, Jaffy Brown encounters a tiger escaped from the menagerie of

, wandering about London's East End. Taken up in the tiger's jaws, he is rescued by Jamrach himself, who then offers Jaffy a job. Jaffy loves working at the menagerie and becomes friends with another employee, Tim Linver. He falls in love with Tim's sister and the three of them grow up together on the streets of London. Several years later, when Jaffy is sixteen, he and Tim are dispatched by Jamrach to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, aboard a whaling ship. Under the charge of Jamrach's seasoned field agent, Dan Rymer, they have been sent to capture a "

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

" for the menagerie. The crew successfully capture the dragon, but on the return voyage it is set loose by Skip, one of the ship's mad crewmen, and after it bites a crew member they are forced to drive it overboard. Later the vessel is struck by a

waterspout A waterspout is a rotating column of air that occurs over a body of water, usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud in contact with the water and a cumuliform cloud. There are two types of waterspout, each formed by distinct mechanisms. ...

and sunk, leaving only a dozen men alive, stranded in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

in two whaleboats. The two boats make for the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, and as the crew gradually begin to die of starvation, thirst, sickness and exposure. Eventually only Jaffy, Tim, Skip and Dan are left alive, and they draw straws to see who will be killed (shot) and who will shoot him. Tim draws the marked piece of paper, and Jaffy kills him, an act which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Eventually Skip also dies, and by the time Dan and Jaffy arrive in Chile they are half-dead with exhaustion and half-mad from grief and anguish. In the book's coda, Jaffy returns home, faces Tim's family, and goes through a long period of depression and ennui. He eventually returns to life as a sailor, and in his retirement constructs a bird menagerie of his own.

Historical references

was a real historical figure who operated a menagerie in east London in the 19th century, and at one point a

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies and the nominate tiger subspecies. It ranks among the largest wild cats alive today. It is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late ...

escaped and took an eight-year-old boy in its mouth. This event is depicted by a statue in

Tobacco Dock Tobacco Dock is a Listed building, Grade I listed warehouse located at Wapping, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located in the East End of London, it was designed by Scottish people, Scottish civil engineer and architect John Rennie the E ...

Wapping Wapping () is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between Tower Bridge to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This posit ...

. Jamrach personally rescued the boy from the tiger. The ordeal of the crew in the lifeboats is largely based on the notorious shipwreck of the

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

''Essex'', which a

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...

rammed and sank in 1820. A sixteen-year-old sailor named Charles Ramsdell shot his childhood friend

Owen Coffin Owen Coffin (August 24, 1802 – February 6, 1821) was a sailor aboard the Nantucket whaler ''Essex (1799 whaleship), Essex'' when it set sail for the Pacific Ocean on a sperm whale-hunting expedition in August 1819, under the command of his cou ...

after the drawing of straws. Coffin, like Tim, insisted on the deal being honoured. Ramsdell survived the incident and returned to life as a sailor.

References

{{Reflist British historical novels 2011 British novels Canongate Books books