Beastly Menagerie: Sir Pilkington-Smythe's Marvelous Collection of Strange and Unusual Creatures - Softcover

A modern-day bestiary of the most incredible animals the world has ever seen-with 200 full-color illustrations Our planet is a writhing mass of wondrous life, positively popping at the seams with peculiar creatures. Life has wriggled its way into every conceivable nook and cranny, and nature has belched out organisms into even the most inhospitable environments. A Beastly Menagerie is a compendium of 100 of these most curious of creatures, from beasts that can fit on a pinhead and survive a saunter into space, to sea creatures just waiting for an excuse to smash a ship to smithereens. And let's not forget to mention the remarkable Jesus Christ lizard, the bone-eating snot flower, the pink fairy armadillo, and the zombie fly. This beautifully illustrated collection will delight and bedazzle fans of the amazing animal kingdom in equal measure. Narrated by the affable eccentric Sir Pilkington-Smythe and assisted by his cronies at The Proceedings of the Ever So Strange, each entry is an enlightening and marvelous foray into our world and all its wonders ...topped off with a soupcon of silliness. An excerptSharks are pretty pleased with themselves, and so they should be. You see, they are basically rippling slabs of muscle in gunmetal grey, with row upon row of huge razor-sharp teeth-awesome eating machines that have remained unchanged for millennia...Of course, some sharks don't look so tough. Think of the bizarre hammerhead, goblin, and frilled sharks. Not that they're to be trifled with. And then there's the cookie cutter shark, a sniveling little guttersnipe who looks more like a fat lady's arm holding a kitchen utensil than the pinnacle of predatory evolution.

Sir Pilkington-Smythe is an erstwhile scholar who gallivants around the globe in search of the most outlandish anecdotes and this is his bestiary. The Right Honourable fellow is a self-professed connoisseur, raconteur, and bon vivant. Socialite scribes, on the other hand, have earmarked him in a rather more damning manner and simply state "the man is a bounder and a cad." Danny Beck helps the scoundrel out with his bags and the big words. He's an award-winning writer and film-maker who has a BS in Biology. Danny is also an ardent naturalist (no, not naturist), which means that he really likes going around the world to look at animals, plants, and the like ... usually wearing clothes.