Book Review: Heroic Animals by Clare Balding

 

Another non-fiction about animals, wouldn't you know it?

In Heroic Animals, Clare Balding counts down 100 special critters throughout history alphabetically. It contains a multitude of heartwarming, sad, exciting, tense and iconic stories about these critters.

I don't have much to say about this book, it's just very solid. It pretty much delivers exactly what you expect: 100 tales of animal heroes throughout history. From Wotjek the bear to Togo the dog to several space-faring animals to Moko the dolphin to Unsinkable Sam the cat. They're all there and they're all given their own time in the spotlight in their own section in the book.

I will have to say that this book doesn't just include heroic animals, however, but also just a few that are iconic, such as canine animal actors or race horses. Not to say that I didn't enjoy their stories: I absolutely did, but I don't feel they exactly like they belong in a book called Heroic Animals. There aren't a lot of these included and most of the book feels consistent in the heroic theme, but I'd personally have re-titled the book Iconic Animals if it was also going to include some non-hero animals.

Another thing I will have to note going in: there are a lot of dogs in this. Not to the point that there isn't enough variation, but I do feel that at least a fifth of all animals featured here are dogs. Which is fine, dogs have contributed very much throughout history, but I just want to let readers know in advance that you don't be getting a unique species for each entry. There's a lot of dogs; quite a few cats, pigeons and horses; and then the remaining species which are usually wild animals of some kind.

Still, this was a very good book! These "criticisms" I have are honestly just personal nitpicks that I don't really count against the book. Do recommend this one, but do be aware that there's quite a bit of animal (and even human) suffering involved in some entries. And quite a few do end with mentions of how the animals died so if animal death is a trigger for you I won't recommend it, either.

Rating: 4/5