"At one stage he obsessively drew Noah's Ark. He had a passion for African mammals and he knew all about them. He had no interest at all in the animals on the farm. The way to his heart was by giving him books about African wildlife. We went of course to London Zoo, but there wasn't a hippo. So, in the middle of winter we made a special expedition to Whipsnade. Ralph was about four. We went into a horrid little house with a smelly muddy pool and out of the murky water emerged a hippo. Ralph stood transfixed; it was as if he were in the presence of a god. I read something that Desmond Morris had written. He said that often children are invited by the animal kingdom as a means of coming to terms with the hierarchy and theatre of man -- which fitted exactly with Ralph's pictures, in which he was always asking which was the king. "
by Jennifer Lash