Today is my turn on the blog tour for Renard Press's latest title, The Zebra and Lord Jones by Anna Vaught. Set in the midst of the Second World War, this is the story of the titular Lord Jones, disappointing only son of fascist sympathiser parents, and his encounter with a zebra, escaped from London Zoo during an air raid.
An interesting exploration of class, nationality and expectations of the 1940s, the beginning of the novel jumps around between Lord Jones and his parents, the keeper of the zebras at London Zoo, a boy called Ernest from Deptford who is evacuated to Wales, and Anwen Llewellyn, a defiant and independent servant at Lord Jones' Carmarthenshire house. As the story begins to come together, it becomes clear that what all of the characters have in common is loneliness and a feeling of not belonging where they are. With words and without them, they gradually come to understand each other, and themselves, better.
Although Lord Jones is the title character and the novel is about him (and the zebras of course), Anwen Llewellyn is in many ways the backbone of the story. Intelligent and underappreciated, she is the first person in Lord Jones' life to realise that he is better than his parents, and has more potential than he has been encouraged to realise. She also embraces his bringing home two zebras with surprising calmness, and connects with the animals in a similar way to him. This isn't a magical story, but it definitely has several characters who believe in the possibility of magic and is written in a really unique and clever way which allows for several possible potentialities to exist at the same time.
The wartime setting of the novel enables a really accessible way to explore themes of loneliness, loss and displacement which run through each of the characters stories in various ways. Whether it's the absence of parental affection in the case of Anwen and Lord Jones, and the subsequent feeling of not belonging in your own home, or the physical loss of family (or zebras) in the case of some of the other characters, everyone in the novel has lost something and is navigating their way through it, and their losses bring them all together in surprising ways.
I haven't managed to finish the book yet, due to life continuing to be life, but I am really enjoying the way that Anna Vaught adds little footnotes to her writing to expand on different subjects, and I'm incredibly interested to see how the strands of the story come together because I have a feeling that it's going to be unexpected. Many thanks to the wonderful Will at Renard Press for asking me to be part of this blog tour and sending me a review copy of the book.
To find out more about The Zebra and Lord Jones, and read full reviews, follow along with the rest of the blog tour!
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