Lions on the Lawn is an account by Mary Chipperfield of the work which she and her family put into creating the lion enclosures at Longleat House in the 1970s. This was the first of this type of animal sanctuary in Britain and I remember it being a well-known attraction when I was a child. Although I am not over fond of zoos and circuses I acquired this book as part of my Advent Calendar in 2023 (see here for my opinion when I opened it) and I thought that I would give it a go.
Mary and her husband lived on site during the development of the attraction although it was spearheaded by her father, a man that she shows a certain amount of wariness about – she is very careful how she describes him. She also lived with a lion which she hand rears from a cub and which becomes part of the family, even when she gives birth to her first child. I enjoyed reading about how the lion enclosures were created and managed and the book is full of amusing stories about the visitors and the problems they cause. It is made very clear that the Chipperfield family are experts and have extensive experience in managing animals.
The book also describes the author training and bringing up her lion Marquis and how she trained and used him and other animals in adverts, films and public appearances. She also tells the reader how she travelled with a lion and smuggled him into hotel rooms. I did think that she was sparse on the details about how she trained the animals and I wasn’t entirely happy about animals being used in this way – which is one of the reasons that I don’t particularly like circuses. I think that attitudes have changed in the past fifty years.
After I had finished reading this book I thought that I would Google the author just to see what she did after this book. I was sad to see that eventually she was convicted of animal cruelty because of her training techniques and that she was banned from owning animals. I was saddened but not surprised having read her book which had made me uneasy about some things.
This was a very old book which I was sent as part of the Advent Calendar and this story is no longer in print. It was a reminder that attitudes have changed but also that autobiographical works include what the author wants you to know and see.
Anne Is Reading 