Bridge in The Menagerie

The Bridge In The Menagerie series is a series of humorous Bridge books originally written by Victor Mollo, and continued after his death by Robert and Philip King. The characters in the series are mostly named after animals.


 * The Ace: The Hideous Hog.
 * Author Existence Failure: Victor Mollo died shortly after the fifth book in the series was published, but four more books (in some cases, using his unpublished material) have been released since.
 * Born Lucky: The Rueful Rabbit; his results are way better than his lack of skill present. One common habit is playing the wrong card to a trick, throwing off his opponents' count of the hand.
 * Born Unlucky: Karapet - his style of play actually takes into account that his suits will split poorly, his finesses will fail, and all probability plays will work out in the most unfavorable fashion.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The first book has a number of apparent club regulars who never appear again, such as the Doctor and the Keyhole Manufacturer.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Colin the Corgi.
 * The Eeyore: Karapet, the Free Armenian, who is convinced that all his bad luck is due to a Curse placed on the Djoulikyans in the fourteenth century by the black witch of Ararat.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: The Hog once again, who has precious little patience for partners who make questionable moves. The only way of mollifying him is to somehow overcome the blunder (frequently by inducing worse blunders from the opposition).
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Frequently by the Secretary Bird, who will always insist on the by-the-book penalties for straying from the standard play. If his opposing partnership is the Rabbit and the Hog, it can practically be guaranteed.
 * Insufferable Genius: The Hideous Hog, who is the best player in the club, and never tires of letting everyone know it.
 * No Sense of Humor: The Secretary Bird.
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Emeritus Professor of Bio-Sophistry, more commonly known as the Secretary Bird. A stickler for the Laws of the game, sometimes verging on Lawful Stupid.
 * Rules Lawyer: Walter the Walrus, of sorts. He's very attentive to the "truisms" of the quality of hands and relies heavily on various maxims of play, regardless of whether indications from bidding and play suggest a different course of action. He'll heavily complain when "inferior quality" hands produce outsized results. More strictly the Secretary Bird, who will enforce the rule book regarding infractions... more than once ruining his chances at winning a hand in doing so.
 * "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: The Secretary Bird, frequently the Hog's nemesis.
 * Straw Feminist: Molly the Mule, who insists on a man's being to blame for everything.
 * Too Clever by Half: Themistocles Papadopolous, aka "Papa the Greek". His results do not live up to his brilliance.
 * Yes-Man: Timothy the Toucan; he knows he lacks talent, so he tends to suck up to partners to ingratiate himself.