The varied and somewhat adventurous life of a Falmouth teacher has been depicted in a book that can be really enjoyed by many who will also helping a charity at the same time.

Strange Things Happened on My Way to the Zoo may sound like mysterious title, but to anyone who knows or who has known Mike Thomas, all will become clear after just a couple of pages.

What’s more, anyone buying the book will be helping the Precious Lives appeal and several hundred pounds has already been handed over since the book was published. Which Christmas approaching it will make an ideal gift or winter reading.

The book tells how Mike, a Welshman by birth although very much an adopted Cornishman who once taught in Falmouth’s old Wellington Terrace School, became the owner of Newquay Zoo later in life, and did a lot more in between. Not least donning his whites and being a leading figure in the once famous and popular Rame Rams cricket team for which yours truly was also a member.

Many readers will no doubt recognise or know some of the people Mike refers to in his book and find themselves chuckling out loud at times at some of the anecdotes.

Why you may ask does a teacher and designer want to become involved with animals? Just being involved and later owning the Gweek Seal Sanctuary shows why. He reluctantly sold it – a full explanation is given in the book, and he turned his attention to Newquay Zoo.

When Mike, now in his 70s, took it over it was an ailing tourist attraction owned by a local authority. But with a passionate concern for the welfare of the animals in his care, a dedicated staff and a sense of humour, he turned it into a place to be proud of and which over the ten years he ran it, brought thousands of visitors to the area.

Just how or why he took it on is explained in this delightful, readable book and although now in retirement living in Falmouth with his wife, he still keeps in touch which how the zoo is progressing, but this time more by walking round it with his grandchildren.

Mike used to live in Constantine but has returned to live Falmouth in a house overlooking Falmouth Bay to which he refers to as a “giant parking bay for ships”.

He is but a stones throw from where he once taught. But has he any regrets? No, he told me. He has loved every minute of everything he has done and that includes playing cricket with the once popular Rame Rams for which I also had the pleasure of playing.

The book, Strange Things Happened on My Way to the Zoo, has been published by Penzance based Alison Hodge, priced: £7.95.

Signed copies can be obtained from the Falmouth Bookseller and it is available elsewhere including on the internet via Amazon.