Gerald Durrell - Author
About the Author
Gerald Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1925. He returned to England in 1928 before settling on the island of Corfu with his family. In 1945 he joined the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper, and in 1947 he led his first animal-collecting expedition to the Cameroons. He later undertook numerous further expeditions, visiting Paraguay, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Mauritius, Assam and Madagascar. His first television programme, Two in the Bush, which documented his travels to New Zealand, Australia and Malaya was made in 1962; he went on to make seventy programmes about his trips around the world. In 1959 he founded the Jersey Zoological Park, and in 1964 he founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. He was awarded the OBE in 1982. Encouraged to write about his life's work by his brother, Durrell published his first book, The Overloaded Ark, in 1953. It soon became a bestseller and he went on to write thirty-six other titles, including My Family and Other Animals, The Bafut Beagles, Encounters with Animals, The Drunken Forest, A Zoo in My Luggage, The Whispering Land, Menagerie Manor, The Amateur Naturalist and The Aye-Aye and I. Gerald Durrell died in 1995.
Featured books by Gerald Durrell
My Family and Other Animals
Moya sem'ya i drugie zveri"e; - ehto "e;kniga, zavorazhivayushchaya v bukval'nom smysle slova"e; (Sunday Times) i "e;samaya voskhititel'naya idilliya, kakuyu tol'ko mozhno voobrazit'"e; (The New Yorker). S neizmennoj lyubov'yu, bezuprechnoj tochnost'yu i nepodrazhaemym yumorom Darrell rasskazyvaet o pyatiletnem prebyvanii svoej sem'i (v tom chisle starshego brata Larri, to est' Lourensa Darrella - budushchego avtora znamenitogo "e;Aleksandrijskogo kvarteta"e;) na grecheskom ostrove Korfu. I sam ehtot roman, i ego prodolzheniya razoshlis' po miru mnogomillionnymi tirazhami, stali nastol'nymi knigami uzhe u neskol'kih pokolenij chitatelej, a v Anglii dazhe voshli v shkol'nuyu programmu. "e;Trilogiya o Korfu"e; trizhdy perenosilas' na teleehkran, prichem poslednij raz - v 2016 godu, kogda britanskaya kompaniya ITV vypustila pervyj sezon seriala "e;Darrelly"e;, odnim iz postanovshchikov kotorogo vystupil EHdvard Holl ("e;Abbatstvo Daunton"e;, "e;Miss Marpl Agaty Kristi"e;). Roman publikuetsya v novom (i vpervye - v polnom) perevode, vypolnennom Sergeem Taskom, ch'i perevody Toma Vulfa i Dzhona Le Karre, Stivena Kinga i Pola Ostera, Iehna Mak'yuehna, Richarda Jejtsa i Frehnsisa Skotta Ficdzheral'da uzhe stali klassicheskimi.
Other books by Gerald Durrell
Meine Familie und andere Tiere
"e;Auf Korfu zu leben, war ein bisschen so, als ware man in eine dieser opulenten, komischen Opern geraten."e; Man schreibt das Jahr 1935. Die Durrells sind das britische Klima leid. Was also lage naher, als auszuwandern? So kehrt der zehnjahrige Gerry gemeinsam mit seinen drei Geschwistern und seiner Mutter Louisa England den Rucken - und betritt eine zauberhafte Welt, die fur die ganze Familie pragend sein wird: die griechische Insel Korfu. In seinen literarischen Erinnerungen erzhlt Gerald Durrell, wie sich sein Blick fr die Natur ffnete. Und macht dabei so geistreiche wie witzige Beobachtungen ber Mensch und Tier. ber die eigensinnigen Einheimischen, die herrlichen Marotten seiner Familie und die tierischen Gste in ihrem Haus.
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
"e;Pticy, zveri i moya sem'ya"e; - ehto prodolzhenie romana "e;Moya sem'ya i drugie zveri"e; - "e;knigi, zavorazhivayushchej v bukval'nom smysle slova"e; (Sunday Times) i "e;samoj voskhititel'noj idillii, kakuyu tol'ko mozhno voobrazit'"e; (The New Yorker). S neizmennoj lyubov'yu, bezuprechnoj tochnost'yu i nepodrazhaemym yumorom Darrell rasskazyvaet o pyatiletnem prebyvanii svoej sem'i (v tom chisle starshego brata Larri, to est' Lorensa Darrella - budushchego avtora znamenitogo "e;Aleksandrijskogo kvarteta"e;) na grecheskom ostrove Korfu. EHti romany i sborniki razoshlis' po miru mnogomillionnymi tirazhami, stali nastol'nymi knigami uzhe u neskol'kih pokolenij chitatelej, a v Anglii dazhe voshli v shkol'nuyu programmu. "e;Trilogiya o Korfu"e; (s techeniem vremeni razrosshayasya do shesti knig) trizhdy perenosilas' na teleehkran, prichem poslednij raz - v 2016 godu, kogda britanskaya kompaniya ITV vypustila pervyj sezon seriala "e;Darrelly"e;, odnim iz postanovshchikov kotorogo vystupil EHdvard Holl ("e;Abbatstvo Daunton"e;, "e;Miss Marpl Agaty Kristi"e;). Roman publikuetsya v novom (i vpervye - v polnom) perevode, vypolnennom Sergeem Taskom, ch'i perevody Toma Vulfa i Dzhona Le Karre, Stivena Kinga i Pola Ostera, Iehna Mak'yuehna, Richarda Jejtsa i Frehnsisa Skotta Ficdzheral'da uzhe stali klassicheskimi.
The Garden of the Gods
The third book in The Corfu Trilogy (after My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts and Relatives), the beloved books that inspired ITV's television series The Durrells. Just before the Second World War the Durrell family decamped to the glorious, sun-soaked island of Corfu where the youngest of the four children, ten-year-old Gerald, discovered his passion for animals: toads and tortoises, bats and butterflies, scorpions and octopuses. Through glorious silver-green olive groves and across brilliant-white beaches Gerry pursued his obsession . . . causing hilarity and mayhem in his ever-tolerant family. 'A wild and amusing chronicle' Daily Express 'This book, an evocation of a budding naturalist's life as a boy on Corfu, will delight many readers, even those who can't stand spiders...' Evening Standard 'Delightful, charming, funny' The Times
Three singles to Advenure
V knige izvestnogo anglijskogo pisatelya i naturalista Dzheral'da Darrella (1925-1995) rasskazyvaetsya o puteshestvii v Britanskuyu Gvianu, kotoroe avtor predprinyal v 1950 godu v poiskah redkih zhivotnyh, obitayushchih v ehtom pervozdannom ugolke prirody, "e;strane vody polnoj burnyh rek, vodopadov i neprohodimyh tropicheskih lesov. O svoih vpechatleniyah ot YUzhnoj Ameriki, ee fantasticheskoj prirody, o vstrechah s novymi zhivotnymi, ih povadkah, zabavnom i poroj ochen' trogatel'nom obshchenii s nimi avtor pishet s neizmennoj lyubov'yu, bezuprechnoj tochnost'yu i nepodrazhaemym yumorom velikolepnogo rasskazchika.
Beasts in My Belfry
Written with Gerald Durrell's usual sharp eye for observing humour in any situation, Beasts in my Belfry will delight fans both old and new. At the age of two I made up my mind quite firmly and unequivocally that the only thing I wanted to do was study animals. Nothing else interested me. Beasts in My Belfry is a charming account of Gerald Durrell's first job in 1945 as a student keeper at Whipsnade Zoo. Over a year, we encounter a typically absurd cast - including Albert the lion, who's a dab hand at ventriloquism, and Teddy the brown bear, with whom the young Durrell sings duets. With notebook and pen in hand, the eager young Durrell observes his co-workers and animal charges alike. Whether getting dirty mucking out the buffalo enclosure or attempting to cajole a jitter-bugging gnu into a transportation crate, life at the zoo is certainly never boring.
THE OVERLOADED ARK
"e;Peregruzhennyj kovcheg - debyutnaya kniga anglijskogo pisatelya i naturalista Dzheral'da Darrella (1925-1995), kotoraya prinesla emu mirovuyu izvestnost'. V knige rasskazyvaetsya o shestimesyachnom puteshestvii 23-letnego avtora i ego kompan'ona-ornitologa po tropicheskim lesam Zapadnoj Afriki i ih zabavnyh, a poroj i dovol'no opasnyh priklyucheniyah v poiskah redkih zhivotnyh dlya anglijskih zooparkov. Uvlekatel'no, s lyubov'yu i nepodrazhaemym yumorom Darrell povestvuet o povedenii i povadkah ptic i zverej, obitayushchih v dzhunglyah, rasskazyvaet o hitrostyah ohoty za nimi i osobennostyah soderzhaniya malen'kih plennikov v nevole, zastavlyaet perezhivat' za ih sud'bu i vmeste s avtorom voskhishchat'sya bogatstvom i raznoobraziem mira prirody.
Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons
Follow the explorations and adventures of Gerald Durrell while he searches for birds, bats and reptiles on the island of Mauritius, in Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons. Mauritius, the green and mountainous island in the Indian Ocean, was once the home of the ill-fated dodo, and by the 1970s it still had many unique but seriously endangered species. To rescue some of these creatures from extinction, Gerald Durrell spent uncomfortable nights in the jungle looking for bats and pink pigeons, and climbed near-vertical rock faces to find Telfair's skinks and Gunther's geckos, spending his spare time exploring the enchanted worlds of the coral reefs with their varied multicoloured marine life. By the end of his trip, he had an extraordinary collection of animals to take to his Jersey sanctuary from where the progeny could, in time, be restored to Mauritius.
The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium
If you loved My Family and Other Animals and can't get enough of the Durrells after the Corfu series, The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium is the book for you. It constitutes a series of anecdotal snippets and short stories including 'The Picnic', a laugh-out-loud account of an ill-fated Durrell family excursion, which should have been a relaxing, jolly affair. But with the Durrells things are seldom straightforward and on this occasion all that could go wrong did go wrong - except Gerald Durrell's sense of humour in recounting the tale. Other hilarious and surreal Roald Dahlesque stories ensue, including the critically acclaimed Gothic horror story 'The Entrance'.
Menagerie Manor
Most children at the tender age of six or so are generally full of the most impractical schemes for becoming policemen, firemen or engine drivers when they grow up . . . I knew exactly what I was going to do: I was going to have my own zoo. Menagerie Manor is the hugely entertaining account of how the much-loved conservationist and author Gerald Durrell fulfilled his lifelong ambition by founding his own private sanctuary for endangered species in Jersey with the help of an enduring wife, a selfless staff and a reluctant bank manager. With a foreword by Lee Durrell, Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, this book about the trials and wonders of living in the middle of a zoo is a classic that will continue to bring pleasure to those who grew up reading Durrell, and deserves a whole new readership.
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