By Judith Kerr

This is the sequel to Life of Pi, although it’s from a different author.

Richard Parker’s sailing days are over. He’s now called Ricardo, because he want to come across as more exotic. He’s Sumatran, you know. He is living in London with the other disgraced tigers, in a small flat owned by the RSPCA and which was formerly leased by ITV as a safe house for presenters of morning television.

The book begins with Sophie and her mother enjoying a normal day at home when there’s a knock at the door. To their surprise, they find a large, friendly tiger standing outside. It’s Ricardo, and he politely asks to join them for tea. Despite their initial astonishment, and without questioning Ricardo’s motives, which remain unclear throughout, Sophie’s mother invites him in.

Ricardo devours everything in sight, except Sophie and her mother, leaving them with mixed emotions.

They called him, ‘old stripey paws,’ and, ‘fuzzy face’

Once he leaves, he never comes back, and this presents Sophie with even more mixed emotions. She enjoyed the thrill of such an exotic visitor but on some level she understood that she was lucky not to have one of her legs chewed off.

What Sophie doesn’t know is that Ricardo bravely withstood many minutes of interrogation from the other tigers who wanted to know where he had obtained the ice buns. He endured both tickling, and some quite barbed insults that really hurt his feelings. They called him, ‘old stripey paws,’ and, ‘fuzzy face,’ so you can see that Ricardo is the true hero of this story.

The author uses symbolism a lot. As the tigers antics become increasingly comical, you just know that Kerr is referring to existential threats like the global pandemic, the rise of AI, and Man City winning the treble.