Beginning with Yuka, a 39,000-year-old mummified woolly mammoth recently found in the Siberian permafrost, each of the sixteen essays in Animals Strike Curious Poses investigates a different famous animal named and immortalised by humans. Here are the starling that inspired Mozart with its song, Darwin's tortoise Harriet, and in an extraordinary essay, Jumbo the elephant (and how they tried to electrocute him). Modelled loosely on a medieval bestiary, these witty , playful, provocative essays traverse history, myth, science and more, introducing a stunning new writer to British readers.

Each of the 16 essays explores a different famous animal named and immortalised by humans - from Mozart's starling to Darwin's tortoise named Harriet. 'It might be the best book on animals I have ever read...' Helen MacDonald, author of "H is For Hawk".