A Tolkien Bestiary

David Day’s landmark book on animal extinction the Doomsday Book of Animals with an introduction by the Duke of Edinburgh was selected in 1981 as a ‘Book of the Year’ by Time Magazine, Christian Scientist Monitor, L.A. Times, Observer and New Scientist. This was followed by: ‘Whale War’ 1987, ‘Eco-Wars’ 1988, ‘Encyclopedia of Vanished Species’ 1989 and ‘Noah’s Choice’ 1990. Day has also been an environmental columnist for Britain’s Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times and Punch Magazine. His Punch columns became the books ‘True Tales of Environmental Madness’ in 1990, and ‘The Complete Rhinoceros’ in 1994. His 1996 ‘Lost Animals’ British Channel Four and Japanese NHK TV series of one hundred five-minute documentaries on extinct species in the 20th century was narrated by the Oscar-winning actress Greta Scacchi; and later translated into 20 languages. His ‘Whale War’ was the basis of a British ITV documentary. David Day has also written six illustrated books of animal stories - and three illustrated books of animal poems - for children. His ‘Emperor’s Panda’ was runner-up for both the Governor General’s Award and the National Library Award. His CBC award-winning poems have been praised by both the Canadian poet Al Purdy and the British poet laureate Ted Hughes.