Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

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Britain, 1971, a country with its back turned to the world and governed by an isolationist coalition that's dismantled the special relationship with America and is preparing to go to war with the United Europe, a country that has fixed

its deep economic depression by selling off the Greenbelt to property developers.

One of the few verdant spaces left in this alternative England is London Zoo, and the Zoo is a

microcosm of the country, a place of faction fighting, bullying, monstrosity, a place

headed for catastrophe and the brutalities of what comes after catastrophe.

This is the world of Angus Wilson's The Old Men at the Zoo, written in 1961 and set in

the following decade, it's one of the great comic novels of the last century.

The signature work of a remarkable writer born 100 years ago,

but who, even in his centenary year, is unjustly neglected.

This edition of Nightwaves is one of those devoted to a single work,

landmarks, we call them.

But the old men at the zoo is a landmark

that has lost its place on the cultural map,

and undeservedly so.

The prickly hero of the novel Simon Carter

is a former BBC producer

who takes an administrative job at Regents Park

...