Jeremy and Amy
Jeremy Keeling first met Amy, an abandoned orang-utan, when he was looking after the private menagerie of music impresario Gordon Mills. Amy had been born to an orang-utan with no maternal instincts and Jeremy, feeling a connection with the rejected primate, hand-reared her. A friendship was forged that would become the defining relationship of both their lives.
One day in 1984, when Jeremy was driving along with one-year-old Amy sitting beside him in the passenger seat, he fell asleep at the wheel and caused a horrific car crash. The first policemen on the scene were staggered to see amidst the wreckage of the upturned car, a hairy, non-human hand cradling Jeremy’s head, keeping it clear of the glass and twisted metal: Amy had saved his life.
For Jeremy, it was to be a long convalescence, but three years later he finally found a way of repaying his debt to Amy, when he met Jim Cronin, a tough-talking primate-lover from the Bronx, who shared his vision of creating a sanctuary for abused and abandoned monkeys.
Pooling their meagre resources the two men took on a derelict pig farm in Dorset and over the next twenty years, slowly transformed it into a 65-acre, cage-less sanctuary for beleaguered primates, rescued from poachers and scientists on daring raids all over the world. Monkey World is now internationally famous and attracts some 800,000 visitors a year.
This book is a story of high-wire adventure, of grit and determination and at its heart an inspiring and life-changing friendship between one man and his ape.
Jeremy Keeling is the Animal Director and co-founder of Monkey World in Dorset.
Jeremy & Amy is the first book to tell the story behind Monkey World, which has 800,000 visitors a year. The park has a database of 30,000 adoptive parents and the television series, formerly Monkey Business, now Monkey Life, is shown in 87 countries. It has run for 12 years on ITV and Channel Five, during which time Jeremy has become a cult hero around the world
A plate section will be included in the book, with amazing colour photographs of Amy as she grows up, and the incredible bond between Jeremy and her
Jeremy & Amy has traces of David Attenborough, Gerald Durrell, James Herriot and modern-day bestsellers such as Marley & Me, but it is utterly unique
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About the author
Jeremy Keeling is the Animal Director and co-founder of Monkey World in Dorset.