The Unexpected Truth About Animals

The Unexpected Truth About Animals

Brilliant natural history, starring lovesick hippos, stoned sloths, exploding bats and frogs in taffeta trousers...

Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Unexpected Truth About Animals, written and read by Lucy Cooke.

History is full of strange animal stories, invented by the brightest and most influential, from Aristotle to Disney, and they reveal as much about us and the things we believe as they do about the animals they misrepresent. We once thought that eels were born from sand, that swallows hibernated under water, and that bears gave birth to formless lumps that were licked into shape by their mothers.

Zoologist Lucy Cooke unravels many such myths, revealing the facts she’s uncovered while sniffing out vultures, snooping on sloths and stalking drunk moose.

The Unexpected Truth About Animals is in equal parts astonishing, illuminating and laugh-out-loud funny. Starring: feminist hyenas; perverted penguins, exploding bats and frogs in taffeta trousers...

'Eye-opening, informative and very funny!' - Chris Packham

Reviews

  • A bloody fabulous read. Thoroughly recommend.
    Sue Perkins (Twitter)

About the author

Lucy Cooke

Lucy Cooke has a Master's in Zoology from the University of Oxford, where she was tutored by Richard Dawkins. She is the author of two previous books, A Little Book of Sloth, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Unexpected Truth about Animals, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize and has been translated into seventeen languages. She has also written for The Sunday Times, Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Lucy is also an award-winning broadcaster and documentary filmmaker. Initially working behind the scenes in television comedy, she is now a regular on Radio 4 and has presented prime-time series for BBC, ITV and National Geographic.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more