Raystede Animal Care Manager Publishes Gripping Debut Novel Big Cats Don’t Purr

Jon Moir an Animal Care Manager from Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare, has released his debut novel, Big Cats Don’t Purr - a tense and atmospheric story of survival, hedonism, and blurred boundaries between humans and the wild.

Set against the scorching backdrop of the 1976 heatwave, the story unfolds in the fictional Lankin Moors Wildlife Park, a fading zoo in the English countryside. When an elephant dies mysteriously, the already fragile park descends into chaos.

The staff, lost in a haze of parties, drugs, and drink, ignore the warning signs until strange mental breakdowns sweep through humans and animals alike. In the midst of this turmoil, three unlikely allies, a young education officer, an Indian mahout, and a local vet must face the forces that threaten them all!

Jon’s fascination with animals began in the 1990s, while travelling in Greece. Befriending the many stray cats and dogs there sparked a lifelong commitment to animal care. Over the past 30 years, he has built a varied career; teaching and running an animal care centre at a further education college in Devon, starting his own kennels and cattery business in France, and ultimately settling with his family in East Sussex, where he feels fortunate to have found his ideal role at Raystede.

Reflecting on the book’s inspiration, Jon explains: “Zoos are strange and incongruous places. Species that have evolved within their unique environment over millennia finding themselves caged or contained within a bubble in the English countryside. Predators that can no longer hunt; nomadic animals unable to roam; shy creatures made to become exhibits. If you look at zoos that way, through the inhabitants’ eyes, then I feel there’s a spark of a story that needs telling.”

Big Cats Don’t Purr blends psychological tension with vivid depictions of human and animal relationships; the novel asks an urgent question - what happens when civilisation gives way to instinct?

Jon’s debut novel will be available to purchase from Raystede’s charity shop in Lewes and at its main site in Ringmer.  £3 from every book sold at a Raystede shop will be donated back to help support Raystede’s work.

The book will also be stocked at Waterstones in Brighton, Hove and Eastbourne as well as City Books in Hove and online via Amazon and Foyles.