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The Zebra and Lord Jones
A listless aristocrat, Lord Jones, finds himself in London during the Blitz, attending to insurance matters. A zebra and her foal, having escaped from the London Zoo during a bombing, cross his path, and he decides to take them back to his estate in Pembrokeshire. Little loved by his fascist-sympathiser parents, something in Lord Jones softens, and he realises he is lost, just like these zebras. The arrival of the zebras sparks a new lease of life on the Pembrokeshire estate, and it is not only Lord Jones but the families his dynasty has displaced that benefit from the transformation. Full of heart and mischief, The Zebra and Lord Jones is a hopeful exploration of class, wealth and privilege, grief, colonialism, the landscape, the wars that men make, the families we find for ourselves, and why one lonely man stole a zebra in September 1940 – or perhaps why she stole him.
- GenresFiction
224 pages, Paperback
Published September 27, 2023
16 people want to read
About the author
Anna Vaught
19 books42 followersSeptember the 10th, Famished is out with Influx Press - but you can subscribe and read it a little early. xxxx
https://www.influxpress.com/subscript...
What's coming? In April, you can read my new novel, Saving Lucia. Here she is above. The book that started with a chance sighting of that photo above - the one where the elderly lady is feeding the birds, so very tenderly. She was the Honourable Violet Gibson and, in April 1926, she went to Rome and tried to kill Mussolini, She shot him in the nose. She got closer than anyone else. Lady Gibson was knocked to the ground, put in prison and, eventually, deported; thereafter, she was certified insane and spent the rest of her life in St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton. Later, a fellow patient was Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce. What if...and do you see the other women above? That's Blanche, Queen of the Hysterics at the Salpetriere and that's Monsieur Charcot demonstrating what happens under hypnosis. She is most remarkably responsive. To her right is Bertha Pappenheim, a prominent Jewish social worker, whose institute was razed by the Nazis. It was not until twenty years after her death that she was also revealed to be 'Anna O', in Freud and Breuer's On Hysteria. These women have an extraordinary story to tell you, so stick around. The book is published on April the 24th, but Bluemoose Books is starting a subscription service, where it will be available to subscribers from (I gather) late February. Follow all news here: https://bluemoosebooks.com/ Saving Lucia is part of Bluemoose's all women catalogue for 2020.
Also in 2020, Famished, my first short story collection, with Influx press, assorted short fiction, two further books being read, one being written and the novel I have just done for my literary agency is about to go out of submission. OOOOH.
https://www.influxpress.com/subscript...
What's coming? In April, you can read my new novel, Saving Lucia. Here she is above. The book that started with a chance sighting of that photo above - the one where the elderly lady is feeding the birds, so very tenderly. She was the Honourable Violet Gibson and, in April 1926, she went to Rome and tried to kill Mussolini, She shot him in the nose. She got closer than anyone else. Lady Gibson was knocked to the ground, put in prison and, eventually, deported; thereafter, she was certified insane and spent the rest of her life in St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton. Later, a fellow patient was Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce. What if...and do you see the other women above? That's Blanche, Queen of the Hysterics at the Salpetriere and that's Monsieur Charcot demonstrating what happens under hypnosis. She is most remarkably responsive. To her right is Bertha Pappenheim, a prominent Jewish social worker, whose institute was razed by the Nazis. It was not until twenty years after her death that she was also revealed to be 'Anna O', in Freud and Breuer's On Hysteria. These women have an extraordinary story to tell you, so stick around. The book is published on April the 24th, but Bluemoose Books is starting a subscription service, where it will be available to subscribers from (I gather) late February. Follow all news here: https://bluemoosebooks.com/ Saving Lucia is part of Bluemoose's all women catalogue for 2020.
Also in 2020, Famished, my first short story collection, with Influx press, assorted short fiction, two further books being read, one being written and the novel I have just done for my literary agency is about to go out of submission. OOOOH.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 18, 2023
Autumn, 1940. Lord Robert Ashburn, hereafter referred to as Lord Jones, is in London attending to the property affairs of his aristocratic family. As the Blitz rains death all around, he finds himself confronted with the sight of a zebra and her foal on the streets of Knightsbridge, who have escaped from their damaged enclosure at London Zoo. An unfathomable moment of connection sparks between the zebra, Mother, and Lord Jones, and in an uncharacteristic act of rebellion be decides to steal her and her foal, Sweetie, and take them to his family's estate in Pembrokeshire.
The arrival of these exotic animals at Cresswell Manor in rural Wales sparks a transformation in the lives of those who live there, and Lord Jones is consumed with a sense of purpose that he has never felt before. As he distances himself from the cold family that treat him with disdain, he finds himself growing closer to Cresswell's fierce, independent housekeeper Anwen Llewelyn - while the wise and magical zebra look on...
Like all of Anna Vaught's spellbinding fictional novels and short story collections, The Zebra and Lord Jones is one that is difficult to do justice to in a short review, as the beauty of her writing really has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. In simple terms, this is a boy-meets-girl story by way of a fateful episode with two zebras amidst the streets of a London on fire, but in the telling it brings in so much more.
Vaught takes the factual escape of a zebra in London during the Blitz, and family tales from her own past, using them as the inspiration to embroider a story which encapsulates love, loss and the golden threads of hope into the lives of a cast of characters who you come to hold dear, while touching on an ambitious array of subjects. At the centre of the story is Lord Jones, a downtrodden and sickly heir of Fascist sympathiser parents, who represent the very worst of the British aristocracy at this period in history. Lord Jones is desperately unhappy with this life, despite the privileges he enjoys, but the very fact that he is love-starved by the parents he despairs of opens him up to a host of wondrous possibilities when two very special equids cross his path.
As the threads of Lord Jones' tale unfurl, the warp and weft of the tapestry Vaught began stitching in London fills in with other characters in need of hope in their lives. Anwen the majestic housekeeper is the most interesting of the bunch, with her refusal to bow to authority and her keen sense of what is right; but there are a host of others like Ernest the evacuee; Mr Talbot the zookeeper and his colleagues in Dresden and Lisbon: the lovely community around Cresswell; a surprise appearance by Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia; and too many animals to mention, advocated for by the wise and all-seeing zebra.
Everything combines in a delicious mix of historical fiction and magical realism redolent with themes of family, class, human frailty, and the terrible toll of war, packed with humour and heart. There is an ebb and flow to the novel that catches you up in a slow-burn fever, tying you irrevocably to the fate of the characters. I loved Vaught's little asides throughout the book, and the delightfully comic back and forth of Operation Zebra, both of which really reminded me of the work of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The way she shines a light on the treatment of animals during World War II too is particularly heart-wrenching and thought provoking in equal measure.
This is a book for those of you that enjoy giving yourselves over to a character led piece which blurs the boundaries between hard-edge story and the seductive pull of a fairy tale. It is everything I adore about Vaught's writing. If you have yet to discover her magic for yourself, then you are in for a treat, and this is a fabulous place to start.
The arrival of these exotic animals at Cresswell Manor in rural Wales sparks a transformation in the lives of those who live there, and Lord Jones is consumed with a sense of purpose that he has never felt before. As he distances himself from the cold family that treat him with disdain, he finds himself growing closer to Cresswell's fierce, independent housekeeper Anwen Llewelyn - while the wise and magical zebra look on...
Like all of Anna Vaught's spellbinding fictional novels and short story collections, The Zebra and Lord Jones is one that is difficult to do justice to in a short review, as the beauty of her writing really has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. In simple terms, this is a boy-meets-girl story by way of a fateful episode with two zebras amidst the streets of a London on fire, but in the telling it brings in so much more.
Vaught takes the factual escape of a zebra in London during the Blitz, and family tales from her own past, using them as the inspiration to embroider a story which encapsulates love, loss and the golden threads of hope into the lives of a cast of characters who you come to hold dear, while touching on an ambitious array of subjects. At the centre of the story is Lord Jones, a downtrodden and sickly heir of Fascist sympathiser parents, who represent the very worst of the British aristocracy at this period in history. Lord Jones is desperately unhappy with this life, despite the privileges he enjoys, but the very fact that he is love-starved by the parents he despairs of opens him up to a host of wondrous possibilities when two very special equids cross his path.
As the threads of Lord Jones' tale unfurl, the warp and weft of the tapestry Vaught began stitching in London fills in with other characters in need of hope in their lives. Anwen the majestic housekeeper is the most interesting of the bunch, with her refusal to bow to authority and her keen sense of what is right; but there are a host of others like Ernest the evacuee; Mr Talbot the zookeeper and his colleagues in Dresden and Lisbon: the lovely community around Cresswell; a surprise appearance by Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia; and too many animals to mention, advocated for by the wise and all-seeing zebra.
Everything combines in a delicious mix of historical fiction and magical realism redolent with themes of family, class, human frailty, and the terrible toll of war, packed with humour and heart. There is an ebb and flow to the novel that catches you up in a slow-burn fever, tying you irrevocably to the fate of the characters. I loved Vaught's little asides throughout the book, and the delightfully comic back and forth of Operation Zebra, both of which really reminded me of the work of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The way she shines a light on the treatment of animals during World War II too is particularly heart-wrenching and thought provoking in equal measure.
This is a book for those of you that enjoy giving yourselves over to a character led piece which blurs the boundaries between hard-edge story and the seductive pull of a fairy tale. It is everything I adore about Vaught's writing. If you have yet to discover her magic for yourself, then you are in for a treat, and this is a fabulous place to start.
September 26, 2023
I am not quite sure where to start with this, except to say it made me laugh and it made me cry. It’s a story of love, death, the healing impact of animals or in this case maybe I should say Zebras. Lord Jones never lived up to his parents expectations, he was a sickly child with pneumonia. His mother never showed him 1 oz of love and his father would have rather have had Oswald Mosley as his son. But would you want parents who had good things to say about Goebbels, Adolph Hitler and Mussolini. Or had even mixed with them on an occasion?
I was shocked to read that 750,000 pets were euthanised imagine being told that your family dog or cat would be better off being put to sleep than being alive during the war. Battersea dogs home housed and looked after thousands of pets with only 4 people working there throughout the war. A young lad Ernest lived in Deptford London his dad had died, his two older brothers were doing their military service. Ernest loved animals he had a dog named Rex, but Rex had had to be euthanised, Ernest struggled with his loss he was only 10 at the time. It wasn’t long after this that Ernest learnt he had to be evacuated away from his mother and would be going to Pembrokeshire, he didn’t want to leave his mum, but he was taken in by Mr Dai Llewelyn and his wife Myfanwy who were a kind couple who had lost their son years back.
So where do the zebras come in, the keeper at London Zoo Talbot loved his Zebras, the zoo had had to euthanise any animals that were venomous. Ernest had been to the zoo and had seen the zebras he had even seen Talbot and thought him to be a nice man.
In 1940, the zebra house at London Zoo was hit by a bomb. No animals were hurt but the zebra and her foal escaped. Strangely Lord Jones was strolling along the street in Knightsbridge, when he heard a galloping sound behind him, he realised he was being followed by a zebra and it’s foal. He continued walking, but the zebras were following him, until this time he was cold hearted having never been shown love he had no feelings until he met the zebras. So it was that Lord Jones took the zebras with him, or did they choose him? To Pembrokeshire where his family had a home. It is there also that Lord Jones meets Anwen Llewelyn who is a force to be reckoned with. Despite the fact that she works for Lord Jones’s family she never holds back on what she thinks.
Some of the characters in this story are so brilliantly crafted, Anwen made me laugh at times she was not one to hold back on anything she thought, but she gradually changed Lord Jones she made him a better person, he learned to love, whether that be animals or people. Ernest ended up staying in Pembrokeshire, and despite tragedy he managed to grow into a nice young man.
But what about the Zebras? There was always a debate as to whether Lord Jones had stolen them, borrowed them or had they just wanted to be with him.
But there is so much more to this story, I couldn’t work out if it was true, was part of it true. There is one thing I do know it is beautifully written. I highly recommend it. I absolutely loved some of the characters they are all believable, living through very hard times.
A definite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read from me, not the type of thing I normally read but sometimes it’s good to read something different.
I was shocked to read that 750,000 pets were euthanised imagine being told that your family dog or cat would be better off being put to sleep than being alive during the war. Battersea dogs home housed and looked after thousands of pets with only 4 people working there throughout the war. A young lad Ernest lived in Deptford London his dad had died, his two older brothers were doing their military service. Ernest loved animals he had a dog named Rex, but Rex had had to be euthanised, Ernest struggled with his loss he was only 10 at the time. It wasn’t long after this that Ernest learnt he had to be evacuated away from his mother and would be going to Pembrokeshire, he didn’t want to leave his mum, but he was taken in by Mr Dai Llewelyn and his wife Myfanwy who were a kind couple who had lost their son years back.
So where do the zebras come in, the keeper at London Zoo Talbot loved his Zebras, the zoo had had to euthanise any animals that were venomous. Ernest had been to the zoo and had seen the zebras he had even seen Talbot and thought him to be a nice man.
In 1940, the zebra house at London Zoo was hit by a bomb. No animals were hurt but the zebra and her foal escaped. Strangely Lord Jones was strolling along the street in Knightsbridge, when he heard a galloping sound behind him, he realised he was being followed by a zebra and it’s foal. He continued walking, but the zebras were following him, until this time he was cold hearted having never been shown love he had no feelings until he met the zebras. So it was that Lord Jones took the zebras with him, or did they choose him? To Pembrokeshire where his family had a home. It is there also that Lord Jones meets Anwen Llewelyn who is a force to be reckoned with. Despite the fact that she works for Lord Jones’s family she never holds back on what she thinks.
Some of the characters in this story are so brilliantly crafted, Anwen made me laugh at times she was not one to hold back on anything she thought, but she gradually changed Lord Jones she made him a better person, he learned to love, whether that be animals or people. Ernest ended up staying in Pembrokeshire, and despite tragedy he managed to grow into a nice young man.
But what about the Zebras? There was always a debate as to whether Lord Jones had stolen them, borrowed them or had they just wanted to be with him.
But there is so much more to this story, I couldn’t work out if it was true, was part of it true. There is one thing I do know it is beautifully written. I highly recommend it. I absolutely loved some of the characters they are all believable, living through very hard times.
A definite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read from me, not the type of thing I normally read but sometimes it’s good to read something different.
September 21, 2023
4.5*
Set in London but mainly in Pembrokeshire this novel brings together a plethora of stories but mainly that of Lord Jones who stole two zebras taking them to his family estate, Cresswell Manor, in Pembrokeshire. It is this, the reason for it and the consequences of it that brings us this magical, heartbreaking and heartwarming book.
Anna Vaught has written a highly researched and fascinating book about zebras, how animals are affected by man, how animals are wise (especially zebras and in particular Grérvy’s zebras) and should be listened to. It is also about how man treats (and has treated) man on an individual, national and global level. All of this is weaved into the most amazing book full of wonderful characters and packed with fascinating facts although perhaps some of those are not real facts you must decide for yourself. To do that will involve some thought, reading and research. Still you will be greatly helped by the footnotes and other resources provided.
Set against the backdrop of WWII we will be taken back before then in order to understand Lord Jone’s circumstances but it is this setting that allows the story of The Zebra and Lord Jones to begin since it is as a result of the bombing raids on London that the fateful meeting brought these two together. We will also read of the devastation to Dresden. We will read of the awful fate of beloved pets in particular of Rex and Ernest.
This is a book about love, what happens when you are deprived of it and whether you are able to find it in another place and how that might come about. It is about grief and how letting others, including animals especially zebras and in particular Gréry’s zebras, in can bring healing, peace and comfort. Indeed happiness and love too under the right circumstances.
There are characters in this book to dislike or pity such as the Earl and Lady Ashburn and their appalling friends. There are likeable characters too. I said earlier that this book was mainly about Lord Jones, Mother and Sweetie but it is more and has many more wonderful characters such as Ernest, the spectacular Annwen, Dai and Myfanwy, Talbot, Peter and Vera, Jenkins the Dry Priest, Haile Selassie! There are things that happen that will bring such sadness to your heart and tears to your eyes but through all of that there is hope, humour and love.
This book was a joy to read.
Many thanks to Will at Renard Press who extended an invitation to be a part of this wonderful event and for an ARC copy of The Zebra and Lord Jones by Anna Vaught for review purposes.
Set in London but mainly in Pembrokeshire this novel brings together a plethora of stories but mainly that of Lord Jones who stole two zebras taking them to his family estate, Cresswell Manor, in Pembrokeshire. It is this, the reason for it and the consequences of it that brings us this magical, heartbreaking and heartwarming book.
Anna Vaught has written a highly researched and fascinating book about zebras, how animals are affected by man, how animals are wise (especially zebras and in particular Grérvy’s zebras) and should be listened to. It is also about how man treats (and has treated) man on an individual, national and global level. All of this is weaved into the most amazing book full of wonderful characters and packed with fascinating facts although perhaps some of those are not real facts you must decide for yourself. To do that will involve some thought, reading and research. Still you will be greatly helped by the footnotes and other resources provided.
Set against the backdrop of WWII we will be taken back before then in order to understand Lord Jone’s circumstances but it is this setting that allows the story of The Zebra and Lord Jones to begin since it is as a result of the bombing raids on London that the fateful meeting brought these two together. We will also read of the devastation to Dresden. We will read of the awful fate of beloved pets in particular of Rex and Ernest.
This is a book about love, what happens when you are deprived of it and whether you are able to find it in another place and how that might come about. It is about grief and how letting others, including animals especially zebras and in particular Gréry’s zebras, in can bring healing, peace and comfort. Indeed happiness and love too under the right circumstances.
There are characters in this book to dislike or pity such as the Earl and Lady Ashburn and their appalling friends. There are likeable characters too. I said earlier that this book was mainly about Lord Jones, Mother and Sweetie but it is more and has many more wonderful characters such as Ernest, the spectacular Annwen, Dai and Myfanwy, Talbot, Peter and Vera, Jenkins the Dry Priest, Haile Selassie! There are things that happen that will bring such sadness to your heart and tears to your eyes but through all of that there is hope, humour and love.
This book was a joy to read.
Many thanks to Will at Renard Press who extended an invitation to be a part of this wonderful event and for an ARC copy of The Zebra and Lord Jones by Anna Vaught for review purposes.
October 22, 2023
This is such a unique book it is going to be difficult to write a review that does it justice.
The book centres around Lord Robert Jones, an aristocrat who has polio as a child and is a bit of a disappointment to his parents, Earl and Lady Ashburn. Their friends included Oswald Mosley and the Mitfords. The pair have very questionable views and reek of privilege and want nothing more than Robert to be a better son than they think he is.
The book meanders from Robert’s early life as a lonely child to a chance encounter with a Zebra called Mother, who is originally from Ethiopia and she ends up at London Zoo. The zoo is bombed one night in the Blitz and Mother and her foal Sweetie escapes. Lord Jones decides to do something that he never dreamed of and he commits a crime and takes the Zebra and baby back to Pembrokeshire in Wales to a Cresswell Manor, a property owned by his family.
There was so much that I loved about this book, the writing, the narrator, the Welsh connection and of course Mother and Sweetie. There are so many layers to this book it was like a journey of exploration and it was one I was delighted to take part in.
I absolutely recommend this book!
The book centres around Lord Robert Jones, an aristocrat who has polio as a child and is a bit of a disappointment to his parents, Earl and Lady Ashburn. Their friends included Oswald Mosley and the Mitfords. The pair have very questionable views and reek of privilege and want nothing more than Robert to be a better son than they think he is.
The book meanders from Robert’s early life as a lonely child to a chance encounter with a Zebra called Mother, who is originally from Ethiopia and she ends up at London Zoo. The zoo is bombed one night in the Blitz and Mother and her foal Sweetie escapes. Lord Jones decides to do something that he never dreamed of and he commits a crime and takes the Zebra and baby back to Pembrokeshire in Wales to a Cresswell Manor, a property owned by his family.
There was so much that I loved about this book, the writing, the narrator, the Welsh connection and of course Mother and Sweetie. There are so many layers to this book it was like a journey of exploration and it was one I was delighted to take part in.
I absolutely recommend this book!
February 18, 2024
I picked this up because I was slightly obsessed with zebras as a small child. I enjoyed reading this story, based on a true incident when a zebra escaped from London Zoo during the blitz. In real life the zebra was found quite quickly, but in the novel the zebra and her calf are "stolen" by Lord Jones and taken to one of his parents' many houses, in South Wales, a costal village full of eccentric characters, that is quite reminiscent of Under Milk Wood.
The plot jumps around between Lord Jones, his relations with the zebras and his housekeeper, the beautiful and clever Anwen, and many other sub plots involving the zookeepers in London, Germany and Portugal, the sad story involving the family of the little evacuee Ernest, Emperor Haile Selassie, the location of the Ark of the Covenant. It is full of surprising asides and foot notes.
I would recommend to anyone who wants something a little different to try. I would read more from this author.
The plot jumps around between Lord Jones, his relations with the zebras and his housekeeper, the beautiful and clever Anwen, and many other sub plots involving the zookeepers in London, Germany and Portugal, the sad story involving the family of the little evacuee Ernest, Emperor Haile Selassie, the location of the Ark of the Covenant. It is full of surprising asides and foot notes.
I would recommend to anyone who wants something a little different to try. I would read more from this author.
September 22, 2023
This is the story about Lord Jones and whilst out attending to some business, comes across a Zebra and her foal. Whilst at the time of the Blitz in London, Lord Jones wants to help these two. He takes them back to his estate and looks after them. I love seeing their journey and their life together. As the reader I found it was full of grief and love. I loved the sound of the story line and it was such a quirky story but I really enjoyed reading it and seeing the magic between human and animal. It is a wonderful read.
September 26, 2023
My review for this wonderful novel is on my blog https://thefallenlibrarian.wordpress....
September 26, 2024
Beautiful book
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