In Mammoth, Chris Flynn takes his readers on a magic carpet ride through history. Our guide is a 13,000 year old extinct mammoth (Mammut americanum), and our fellow travellers are a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a pterodactyl , the mummified hand of Hatshepsut, and a ten million year old penguin Palaeospheniscus patagonicus:- “My friends call be Palaeo” “What, like the diet?” asks T.bataar.
Flynn has no trouble questioning the actions of our ancestor hominids. The early white Americans in particular look very foolish as seen from the perspective of our Mammut narrator.

‘Let me tell you, and I say this as an original American, nothing compares to this nation’s willingness to promote patently false notions about itself in order to create a myth of American potency. Politics in this country has at its core an overcompensation for feelings of inadequacy.’

With bitter sarcasm, he recounts the irreversible damage wrought by hominids:

‘What great men they were! Enslaving and slaughtering our sisters and brothers. What a boon man is to the world, helpfully clearing away its original inhabitants to make room for their grubby dwellings and mewling spawn.’

However, a lot of this book is really very funny. The prehistoric penguin and Hatshepsut’s hand are constantly squabbling. He says of her ‘She’s a complete narcissist. Typical of these millennials. Three and a half millennia old and she thinks it’s all about her.’ She refers to him as a ‘deformed duck’.
Mammoth explores our past and present relationship with the other species with whom we share the planet with originality and playfulness. Flynn has given a voice to an unique storyteller; I’ll never forget Mammut and his journey.