Heroic Animals: 100 Amazing Creatures Great and Small

by Clare Balding

How Pickles rescued the World Cup.

How Wotjek the bear joined the fight against the Nazis.

How Bobby the Wonder Dog crossed a continent to find his lost family.

How Able Seacat Simon saved the crew of HMS Amethyst.

How Gallipoli Murphy the donkey carried 250 wounded soldiers to safety.

How Roselle guided her blind owner out of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

In Heroic Animals I want to tell the true stories of 100 remarkable creatures who have changed our world for the better.

There are all kinds of tales here: happy, sad, inspiring and funny. Life-saving canaries, empire-rescuing geese, dogs who can sniff out disease, ships' cats and even a ship's pig.

All these animals are heroes to me - whether they risked their lives to pull people out of the ruins of a bombed building, won a race against impossible odds, danced their way to an Olympic gold medal or have been so incredibly badly behaved that they have managed to inspire something good (Stoffel, the honey badger, I'm thinking of you).

Writing this book has brought home to me that there is no such thing as an ordinary animal.

Every one has a heroic story to tell.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

366 pages, ebook

First published October 15, 2020

Reviews

[Marloes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/3.5⭐️

[Shirley Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had this not needed all the acknowledgements at the end that made me realise Clare just put her name to it rather than undertook the research that was 50% of the work then I would have given 5 stars. I was given the book for my birthday and the substantial hardcover copy offers a very broad range of examples of animals who have done something noteworthy over the years.
The vignettes are just the right length and offer a suitable snapshot of the salient points. There is nothing mawkish or sentimental about the examples.
There are a few photographs put together in a clutch - presumably for printing purposes at the expense of where they might be best placed for the reader's enjoyment. I was familiar with around 10 of the stories, mostly the racehorses, which rather shows that in the terms of profile we revere sporting animals more than we do the life-savers!
A good read, informative and entertaining.

[Hana White]

Read for work.

[Harry Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some stories are shocking. Especially Sergeant Stubby

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some amazing animals that I knew about and some that I now know about.

[R.J. Southworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine collection of real-life stories of heroic animals - while Clare Balding probably has more stories about horses than another author would, given her background, there's a wide variety of both animals and contexts. Obviously a lot of the stories involve animals getting hurt, and not all of them have a happy ending, but if you're an animal lover who can cope with that, you should definitely enjoy this.

[Bodil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clare Balding writes in a good and personal style, and this book is no exception. However, the short space that she can allocate to each animal, sometimes make it difficult to really understand what the animal did and in which “context”. Not all animal are what I would call heroic, but all have a story worth telling. Sadly, many of them have suffered due to us humans. And sadly there has been so many wars.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I love Animal Biographies I had already reads great deal of these stories, the full length versions!

I had read all about Barrie from Syria, Antis the German Shepherd who flew in Bombers during WW2, Judy the dog prisoner of War, Able Sea cat Simon, Sherlock the firedog with the cute bootees, Molly the spaniel who finds lost cats, Roselle the guide dog who safely helped her owner out of the Towers on 9/11….and many more!

What I didn’t realise was there were TWO guide dogs in the Towers in 9/11! And somehow I had never heard the story of Wotjek, the bear who served in World War 2!

There are also a LOT of horse stories in this book!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. It was incredible to find out about all these amazing animals that have done so many things. Animals are truly more than worth their weight in gold and I am sure I will revisit this book time and time again to remind myself of the brilliance of the animals that have graced this Earth, past and present.

[Odd Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. Lots of great stories, although I think 'heroic' it pushing it a bit for many of them. I guess 'notable' doesn't have the same ring to it. Lots of dogs and horses, but a few random creatures in there too. A nice, easy read for all animal lovers.

[Vicki Orton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book to devour!! All the stories are incredibly interesting and inspiring to know what the animal kingdom has done to help humans! Written extremely well, with Clare injecting a lot of emotions into each story; you feel like she be with you telling them!

[Lisa Lotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wouldn’t call it a book of all heroic animals but the stories were interesting enough and some brought a little tear to the eye (especially the ones with dogs). Definitely a nice read if you’re an animal lover

[Marilyn Crump · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book, full of lovely animal stories that were inspirational. A great read, that you can just pick up and enjoy, learning about great characters, publicly known and one’s that should be. A must read for all animal lovers.

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just another beautiful book filled with true hero’s stories, yet more evidence why we humans don’t deserve them or their love

[Kassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely collection of true stories, great for any animal lover

[Kay Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Found it a great read.

[Merlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book that I read quickly as the true stories are so interesting

[Annie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotional book. Laughed, cried and got angry at humans treatment of animals. Worth reading to know of the existance of these amazing animals, that save our lives for very little reward.

[Gemma Illes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading all the stories. Beautifully written. Would happily read it again.

[Gail Wylde · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely read.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

All people that abuse animals should be made to read this book.
Truly amazing animals from many that helped win the war to the Tamworth two.

[John Ollerton · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of just a compilation really, but Claire’s love of animals really comes through.

[Adam Endacott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of fascinating stories of some very brave and inspiring animals. The book has too many horse stories for my tastes but it makes sense considering Clare’s background with the animal.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of animal hero's well worth a read.

[Alex T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good non-fiction about historic animals throughout history. There's definitely a lot of dogs, though.

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...