A 15-foot sculpture of a manticore, a mythical beast with the tail of a scorpion and the body of a lion, tours London to celebrate the release of The Poisoned King, the new book in the globally bestselling Impossible Creatures series by Katherine Rundell, published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books.
‘The manticore has the tail of a scorpion, the face of a human, the teeth and body of a lion, and the personality of a self-righteous politician. Some subspecies are winged, with a ball of porcupine quills at the tip of the tail. Manticores, like karkadanns, are one of the very few creatures who will attack humans on sight, even when not in need of food. They lie and kill for the pleasure of it. They smell of decay. The horned subspecies is more violent and more terrible than the common variety, and delights in death’. – THE POISONED KING, the new book in the Impossible Creatures series by Katherine Rundell, out now (Bloomsbury, £14.99)
On Thursday 11 September 2025, people all over London were amazed to see a giant mythical manticore taking in the sights around London. The manticore – ‘beautiful, but liable to eat you’ according to author Katherine Rundell – toured Westminster Bridge, The Mall, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, St Paul’s Cathedral and London Bridge, before stopping to rest for the day at Potter’s Field Park with Tower Bridge and Tower of London looming large behind him.
The impressive, golden manticore was visiting London from The Archipelago, a cluster of magical islands where all the creatures of myth still live and breed and thrive in their thousands, to celebrate the publication of The Poisoned King, the second book in the award-winning and bestselling Impossible Creatures series by number 1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Katherine Rundell.
The experience was created by Bloomsbury Publishing and Sketch Events, to create an immersive experience to ignite imaginations and bring the world of Impossible Creatures to life for children, tourists, commuters and fantasy fans alike.
