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Building Noah's Ark: From Cows To Tigers
367 pages, Paperback
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 23, 2023
I did not finish this book. Would not recommend you pick it up. Outdated views on women, LGBT rights to name but a few. I realised at about 30% of the way through that this book was making me miserable so I had to stop. Which is a shame as I am actually interested in how the farm became a zoo. But so not need to be told by a straight white man about the rights of the female body.
May 15, 2019
In my longish career—a bit shy of Bush’s—I've read a fair share of self-published autobiographies, and I found this one more engaging than most despite (or perhaps, because of) the fact that I was reared only an elevated train ride away from the center of a major American city and know next to nothing about zoos or English dairy farming.
Born in 1938, Bush is the son of a Wiltshire farm manager, who as a young man was an athletic and imposing 6’ 4”, and who, from his earliest years at British public schools, seems to have developed a superior work ethic, some impressive organizational skills, and the half-optimistic, half-naive temperament that led him to believe that he could accomplish a lot if he could only “get together with people with different ideas and talk issues through.” (85)
As an adolescent Bush also became a committed Christian, and though he has remained a member of the Anglican Church, he is considerably more conservative in his theology than the hierarchy of his church. In 1985, he served as director of a Billy Graham evangelistic campaign in Bristol.
From 1960 until 1995, Bush was a dairy farmer who found the time to create a number of charities, including Send a Cow, an African relief agency. In 1999, against considerable logistical and ideological opposition, Bush and his wife began Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, which has since become an significant tourist attraction in Somerset despite arousing the irritation of atheists, animal rights activists, and on occasion, his local county government. (At least in rural areas, American local government seems positively laissez-faire by comparison.)
Bush is most successful when describing his early years, and his account loses some esthetic distance and becomes more of a chronicle once he and his wife found the zoo. Furthermore, as the forward by former Conservative MP Ann Widdecomb notes, the book contains “some rather frank stuff about sex.” Skeptics will, of course, grit their teeth at Bush’s creationism, even if his version is closer to theistic evolution than the Young Earth variety popular among American fundamentalists. Nevertheless, this autobiography is enlivened throughout by the author’s peculiar blend of faith, humor, perseverance, and irenic temperament.
Born in 1938, Bush is the son of a Wiltshire farm manager, who as a young man was an athletic and imposing 6’ 4”, and who, from his earliest years at British public schools, seems to have developed a superior work ethic, some impressive organizational skills, and the half-optimistic, half-naive temperament that led him to believe that he could accomplish a lot if he could only “get together with people with different ideas and talk issues through.” (85)
As an adolescent Bush also became a committed Christian, and though he has remained a member of the Anglican Church, he is considerably more conservative in his theology than the hierarchy of his church. In 1985, he served as director of a Billy Graham evangelistic campaign in Bristol.
From 1960 until 1995, Bush was a dairy farmer who found the time to create a number of charities, including Send a Cow, an African relief agency. In 1999, against considerable logistical and ideological opposition, Bush and his wife began Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, which has since become an significant tourist attraction in Somerset despite arousing the irritation of atheists, animal rights activists, and on occasion, his local county government. (At least in rural areas, American local government seems positively laissez-faire by comparison.)
Bush is most successful when describing his early years, and his account loses some esthetic distance and becomes more of a chronicle once he and his wife found the zoo. Furthermore, as the forward by former Conservative MP Ann Widdecomb notes, the book contains “some rather frank stuff about sex.” Skeptics will, of course, grit their teeth at Bush’s creationism, even if his version is closer to theistic evolution than the Young Earth variety popular among American fundamentalists. Nevertheless, this autobiography is enlivened throughout by the author’s peculiar blend of faith, humor, perseverance, and irenic temperament.
August 11, 2014
Whether or not you agree with Anthony's views about Christianity, evolution or the big bang, it's hard to not admire someone who has shown complete and utter faith and persistence in what he wants to do, and in making a difference to others. An inspiring tale.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews