This edition does not include illustrations. The authorised biography of the great naturalist and conservationist Gerald Durrell, who died aged seventy in January 1995 in Jersey, where he founded the zoo he’d dreamed of as a small boy and pioneered the captive breeding of animals for conservation. Gerald durrell was a world-famous naturalist and popular author who wrote, some thirty-seven immensely readable yarns, in all, including the bestselling ‘My Family and Other Animals’.

Sir david attenborough has said: ‘He was responsible for changing people’s attitudes to zoology and changing their agenda. He showed them small animals could be as interesting as apes and elephants…He was a pioneer with a marvellous sense of humour. His brother was the famous writer Lawrence Durrell.

His other books include ‘birds, beasts and relatives’, ‘The Bafut Beagles’ and ‘A Zoo in My Luggage’. Above all, he paved the way in print for the popular presentation of the natural world on television and presented twelve series himself – the early ones, of his own expeditions.

The Durrells of Corfu

And haag has unearthed the story of how the Durrells left Corfu, including Margo's and Larry's last-minute escapes before the War. An extended epilogue looks at the emergence of Larry as a world famous novelist, and Gerry as a naturalist and champion of endangered species, as well as the lives of the rest of the family, their friends and other animals.

The durrells of corfu describes the family's upbringing in India and the crisis that brought them to England and then Greece. The book is illustrated with family photos from the Gerald Durrell Archive, many of them reproduced here for the first time. But what of the real life durrells? why did they go to corfu in the first place - and what happened to them after they left?The real story of the Durrells is as surprising and fascinating as anything in Gerry's books, and Michael Haag, drawing on diaries, with his first hand knowledge of the family, is the ideal narrator, letters and unpublished autobiographical fragments.

It recalls the genuine characters they encountered on Corfu - Theodore the biologist, the taxi driver Spiro Halikiopoulos and the prisoner Kosti - as well as the visit of American writer Henry Miller. The durrell family are immortalised in Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and its ITV adaptation, The Durrells.

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A Zoo in My Luggage The Zoo Memoirs Book 1

A british naturalist and his wife acquire a menagerie of animals and set up their own zoo in this delightful memoir by the author of the Corfu Trilogy. For many years I had wanted to start a zoo. After a decade of supplying creatures for other people’s zoos, where they collected numerous mammals, in 1957 Gerald Durrell and his wife set off on an adventurous journey to the Cameroons in West Africa, birds, and reptiles.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate. Not only did they have to get them safely home, they also had to find somewhere able and—more importantly—willing to house them. The wild nature of the animals created quite a bit of chaos, but the Durrells’ problems really began when they attempted to return to Britain with their exotic new friends.

. . . But throughout my life I have rarely if ever achieved what I wanted by tackling it in a logical fashion. Any reasonable person smitten with an ambition of this sort would have secured the zoo first and obtained the animals afterwards. Told with wit and a zest for all things furry and feathered, Durrell’s A Zoo in My Luggage is a brilliant account of how a pioneer of wildlife preservation came to found a new type of zoo.

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Whatever Happened to Margo?

Margo's own two sons, prove to be every bit as mischievous as their famous Uncle Gerald - and he himself returns periodically with weird and wonderful animals, Gerry and Nicholas, from marmosets to monkeys, that are quite unsuitable for life in a Bournemouth garden. In 1947, returning to the uk with two young children to support, Margaret Durrell starts a boarding house in Bournemouth.

But any hopes of respectability are dashed as the tenants reveal themselves to be a host of eccentrics: from a painter of nudes to a pair of glamorous young nurses whose late-night shifts combined with an ever-revolving roster of gentleman callers leading to a neighbourhood rumour that Margo is running a brothel.

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The Whispering Land The Zoo Memoirs Book 2

Naturalist gerald durrell recalls his expedition to South America to find exotic animals in this follow-up to A Zoo in My Luggage. With a team of helpers, they spent eight months on safari searching for exotic specimens. . After bringing multiple species of african animals back to the Channel Island of Jersey to populate their new zoo, British naturalist Gerald Durrell and his wife followed their passion for wildlife preservation on a journey to South America.

Filled with adventure, exploration, and the spirit of conservation, The Whispering Land is a memoir that animal lovers of all ages will enjoy. Through windswept patagonian shores and tropical forests in the Argentine, from ocelots to penguins, fur seals to parrots to pumas, the author who inspired the public television drama The Durrells in Corfu captures the landscape and its inhabitants with his signature charm and humor.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

Birds, Beasts and Relatives The Corfu Trilogy Book 2

. Filled with clever observations, beasts and Relatives is half nature guide, half coming-of-age tale, Birds, amusing anecdotes, and childlike wonder, and all charmingly funny memoir. Against this picturesque backdrop, Durrell fondly recalls his family’s disorderly household and outrageous antics, including their interactions with locals of both human and animal varieties.

After a boyhood spent studying zoology and acquiring the island’s exotic insects, and sea creatures as pets, birds, mammals, reptiles, Durrell’s budding naturalism would later bloom into a passion for conservation that would last a lifetime. The follow-up to my family and other animals and the inspiration for The Durrells in Corfu: A naturalist’s memoir of his family’s time on a Greek island.

In the years before world war ii, gerald Durrell’s family left the gloomy shores of England for the sun-drenched island of Corfu. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

The Garden of the Gods The Corfu Trilogy Book 3

The final chapter in durrell’s reflections on his family’s time in Greece before the start of World War II, The Garden of the Gods is a fascinating look at the childhood of a naturalist who was ahead of his time. . In addition to his tales of wild animals, durrell recounts stories about his even wilder family—including his widowed mother, and elder siblings Lawrence, Louisa, Leslie, and Margo—with undeniable wit and humor.

Part of the trilogy of memoirs that inspired the television show The Durrells in Corfu: A naturalist’s adventures with animals—and humans—on a Greek island. When his family moved to a greek island, young naturalist Gerald Durrell was able to indulge his passion for wildlife of all sorts as he discovered the new world around him—and the creatures and people who inhabited it.

Indeed, durrell’s years growing up on Corfu would inspire the rest of his life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

The Bafut Beagles

. In 1949, gerald durrell embarks with fellow zoologist Kenneth Smith on an expedition to collect rare animals in the British Cameroons in West Central Africa. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate. There, set off on a journey with the famed british naturalist’s group of hunters and his pack of motley hunting dogs as they encounter an array of exotic creatures, who likes a man who can hold his liquor—will Durrell be able to get on his good side? In this unique memoir, he meets the Nero-like local ruler, a frog with a mysterious coat of hair, the Fon of Bafut, booming squirrels, keeping, including flying mice, and teacup-size monkeys; and witness the joys and problems of collecting, and transporting wild animals from Africa to England.

Travel to the wilds of cameroon with the conservationist whose work inspired Masterpiece production The Durrells in Corfu on public television.

My Family and Other Animals The Corfu Trilogy Book 1

. Capturing the joyous chaos of growing up in an unconventional household, My Family and Other Animals will transport you to a place you won’t want to leave. The inspiration for the durrells in Corfu, a Masterpiece production on public television: A naturalist’s account of his childhood on the exotic Greek island.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate. Soon, geckos, octopuses, ladybugs, bats and butterflies—as well as scorpions, pigeons, toads and tortoises, praying mantises, and gulls—became a common sight in the Durrell villa. As they settled into their new home, hilarious mishaps ensued as a ten-year-old Gerald Durrell pursued his interest in natural history and explored the island’s fauna.

When the durrells could no longer endure the gray English climate, they did what any sensible family would do: sold their house and relocated to the sun-soaked island of Corfu. Uproarious tales of the island’s animals and Durrell’s fond reflections on his family bring this delightful memoir to life.

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Fillets of Plaice

Throughout it all, Durrell entertains with his signature charming, witty voice. In fillets of plaice, he compiles a quintet of hilarious stories that touch on all of the above and more—from his unconventional childhood to his passion for animal conservation as an adult. In his later memoirs, he vividly describes his expeditions to other, faraway places.

The celebrated naturalist and author of the Corfu Trilogy, shares more humorous reflections on a life spent among humans and animals. His adventures range from a rollicking birthday party to a London pet shop to the exotic locale of deepest Africa. . This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

A compendium of outrageous tales, Fillets of Plaice is perfect for longtime fans of Durrell’s work, and anyone looking for a heartwarming, riotous read. In my family and other animals and its sequels, Gerald Durrell writes of his family’s antics during their time on the Greek island of Corfu.

Menagerie Manor The Zoo Memoirs Book 3

Spurred by his passion for animals and a lifelong dream, in the spring of 1959 Gerald Durrell opened the Jersey Zoo—now known as the Durrell Wildlife Park—on the grounds of an old manor house. But despite the setbacks, for durrell, often hilarious stories make clear that, these charming, ensuring the park’s success and helping the creatures he loved so dearly was worth any obstacle.

Dealing with escapee animals and overdrawn bank accounts, Durrell soon discovered that owning and operating a fledgling zoo was no easy task. . The menagerie provided a safe habitat for rare and endangered species and exposed its human visitors to the wonders of nature. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

The beloved naturist and author of My Family and Other Animals shares the pleasures and pitfalls of opening a zoo on the English Channel Island of Jersey.