The Old Men at the Zoo
1961 novel by Angus Wilson
The Old Men at the Zoo is a novel written by Angus Wilson, first published in 1961 by Secker and Warburg. It explores the moral compromises of those in power and the fragility of democratic institutions in crisis.
Written from the perspective of an administrator at the London Zoo, the book deals with events before and during a limited, possibly nuclear war that results in the imposition of a dystopian pan-European dictatorship which imprisons anyone suspected of opposition. Fanatic government representatives plan to use the zoo for the public execution of political prisoners in a return to the Ancient Roman Damnatio ad bestias (condemnation to beasts) before a further change in government lead to another reversal of fates.
The book was adapted, with many changes – nuclear bombing of London, not present in the novel, was added – into a 1983 BBC Television series by the scriptwriter Troy Kennedy Martin.
The public source identifies “The Old Men at the Zoo” as 1961 novel by Angus Wilson. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around novel, Angus and Wilson.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7754882. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Old Men at the Zoo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.