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
My Family and Other Animals is the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell. This tv tie in edition coincides with ITV's six part television series The Durrells. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood.
Other books by Gerald Durrell
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
The follow up to My Family and Other Animals and the second book in The Corfu Trilogy, 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.
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.
My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals is the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood. 'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph 'A bewitching book' Sunday Times
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. This 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.
Rosy is My Relative
Written with Gerald Durrell's usual sharp eye for observing humour in any situation, Rosy is my Relative will delight fans both old and new. At the age of thirty, Adrian Rookwhistle's life hasn't quite turned out the way he'd have hoped. Working an unfulfilling job as a clerk in the city and living under the tyranny of his fearsome landlady, he can't help but think that there is more to life. However, all of this suddenly changes when he receives a curious letter from his dying uncle who has bequeathed him GBP500 and an elephant by the name of Rosy who has a seemingly unquenchable thirst for liquor. At a loss of what to do with his unexpectedly gargantuan - and rarely sober - inheritance, Adrian sets forth on a journey believing to have the answer to his dilemma; he'll give her away to the circus. Together Adrian and Rosy carve a trail of destruction through the peaceful countryside of southern England, meeting a curious cast of misfits along the way. Drunk or sober, Rosy spreads chaos in her wake, until the full weight of the law finally catches up with her . . .
My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals is the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell, beautifully repackaged in hardcover for the book's 60th anniversary. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood. 'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph 'A bewitching book' Sunday Times
My Family and Other Animals
The inspiration behind ITV's hit family drama, The Durrells. My Family and Other Animals is Gerald Durrell's hilarious account of five years in his childhood spent living with his family on the island of Corfu. With snakes, scorpions, toads, owls and geckos competing for space with one bookworm brother and another who's gun-mad, as well as an obsessive sister, young Gerald has an awful lot of natural history to observe. This richly detailed, informative and riotously funny memoir of eccentric family life is a twentieth-century classic. This edition features an afterword by Peter Olney, former Keeper of Birds at the London Zoo, and a distinguished ornithologist who was awarded the Zoological Society of London's Silver Medal in 2003. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
My Family and Other Animals
Ten-year-old Gerald doesn't know why his older brothers and sisters complain so much. With snakes in the bath and scorpions on the lunch table, the family home on the Greek island of Corfu is a bit like a zoo so they should feel right at home... Gerald joyfully pursues his interest in natural history in the midsts of an unconventional and chaotic family life - all brilliantly retold in this very funny book.
The Stationary Ark
`What we tried to do in Jersey is create a new sort of zoo. I think we have succeeded.' In this important book Gerald Durrell describes his battles to create his vision of a new sort of zoo at Jersey with descriptions of his successes and failures with a liberal sprinkling of zoo animal tales on the way. Much of Gerald Durrell's long-standing basic captive breeding and conservation vision, which may, in a new century, seem almost obvious, is set out here along with prophecies - just one almost throwaway instance: `In our next step, we plan to form the Trust into a kind of mini-university of wildlife husbandry and breeding'.
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, this 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'.
Catch Me a Colobus
A pot-pourri of humorous animal anecdotes concocted by the famous wildlife lover, leading conservationist and award-winning author, Gerald Durrell. Hectic, hilarious days at his Jersey zoo and forays to various corners of the earth to rescue animal species in danger of extinction provide a series of wonderful stories that are wry, witty and wonderful. Apes get loose, tigers get pregnant and women fall by the droves for a handsome zoo keeper. Endearingly funny, occasionally outrageous, Catch me a Colobos is classic Gerald Durrell.
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.
Ark on the Move
'Even the most cautious of travellers would, I think, be thrilled at the idea of visiting a remote tropical island. There seems to be something about tropical islands that stirs the blood of even the most unadventurous souls.' Lying in the Indian Ocean, the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar - where millions of years of evolutionary isolation created a flora and fauna unique in the world - provide the exotic setting for Gerald Durrell's expeditionary rescue work with animals. In his personal and delightful way he entertains, educates and makes a dramatic appeal to us all about the distressing state of these beautiful and endangered species around the world and shows us the serious consequences to life and its future on this earth. This exciting journey also inspired an international television series based on the author's rescue and breeding operations.
The Drunken Forest
Gerald Durrell is among the best-selling authors in English. His adventurous spirit and his spontaneous gift for narrative and anecdote stand out in his accounts of expeditions in Africa and South America in search of rare animals. He divines the characters of these creatures with the same clear, humorous and unsentimental eyes with which he regards those chance human acquaintances whose conversation in remote places he often reproduces in all its devastating and garbled originality. To have maintained, for over fifteen years, such unfailing standards of entertainment can only be described as a triumph. The Argentine pampas and the little-known Chaco territory of Paraguay provide the setting for The Drunken Forest. With Durrell for interpreter, an orange armadillo or a horned toad, or a crab-eating raccoon suddenly discovers the ability not merely to set you laughing but also to endear itself to you.
Three Singles to Adventure
Gerald Durrell is on his way to South America on a quest to capture specimens that have never before been brought back alive. And it turns into quite an adventure when he encounters timid squirrel monkeys, wailing rats, an overly affectionate bird christened Cuthbert and a bad-tempered anaconda! Bringing back a living collection of animals can be frustrating, exciting and damned hard work, but it's never dull!
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.' This 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.
Fillets of Plaice
Fillets of Plaice combines Gerald Durrell's love for animals in all their forms with the humorous anecdotes about his family for which he is so well known from My Family and Other Animals and its sequels. Larry, Margot, Leslie and Mother are all present and correct, but so too are spiders, lizards and water fleas.
Two in the Bush
Two in the Bush is a record of the six-month journey which took Gerald Durrell, his wife Jacquie, and two cameramen through New Zealand, Australia and Malaya. The object was, first, to see what was being done about the conservation of wild life in these countries, and, secondly, to make a series of television films for the BBC. They were introduced to many rare and remarkable animals - Royal Albatrosses, Tuataras, Duck-Billed Platypuses, Flying Lizards and Long-Nosed Bandicoots, as well as to some equally unusual humans. Anyone who has read The Overloaded Ark, The Bafut Beagles or The Whispering Land will have enjoyed Gerald Durrell's enthusiastic adventuring and his delight in the absurdity of the situations in which he finds himself. His observation of animal - and human - behaviour is always informative and often hilarious. `Delightfully readable and often very funny.' Daily Mail `An account of Gerald Durrell's tour of New Zealand, Australia and Malaya in search of rarities . . . Easy to read, difficult to put down, with many vivid sidelights on the human side of the expedition. This absorbing narrative reveals the ardours, ironies and disappointments, the organizational miracles and the hilarious human mishaps . . .' Maurice Wiggin, Sunday Times `Mr Durrell has the knack of writing about animals and their antics with tremendous affection and enthusiasm, but without sentimentality.' Sunday Telegraph `Will delight his fans and armchair naturalists everywhere.' Evening Standard
The New Noah
If you want to know how to capture, and then make friends with an ant-eater, an electric eel, or a porcupine or a boa-constrictor, this is your book. When Gerald Durrell goes wild-animal hunting he takes interest and affection along with his nets and traps. And his captives enjoy luxury treatment as he discovers how to feed and train them and prepare them for display in the zoos to which they are destined. This is a fascinating book, for the reader is let into many secrets of the animal hunter's trade, as well as being introduced to a variety of charming and curious animals such as capybaras, hoatzins, and tucotucos, not to mention a tame curassow called Cuthbert.
The Ark's Anniversary
When Gerald Durrell was six he told his mother that he intended to have his own zoo. This is the story of how he achieved his ambition - and how his dream grew into The Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, to become a major world force in wildlife conservation. Whether the author is on the trail of a bank manager or a pigmy hoe, whether he is courting patrons or tracking a Gunther's gecko, his enthusiasm remains undiminished as, Noah-like, he gathers in his wonderful collection of rare and exotic animals to save them from extinction.
Barka szuletesnapja
Gerald Durrell - a Csaladom es egyeb allatfajtak es sok mas vidam es meghato konyv szerzoje - keteves kora ota gyujtogette gyufaskatulyakba es a zsebebe a legkulonfelebb allatokat. Hatevesen kijelentette az anyjanak, hogy sajat allatkertje lesz - ahova majd ot is odakoltozteti... Felnottkent pedig minden almat es igeretet valora valtotta. Temerdek anyagi, erkolcsi es technikai nehezseget legyozve Jersey szigeten felepitette a Barkat"e;, ahol a veszelyeztetett allatfajok szaporitasa, majd termeszetes elohelyukre valo visszatelepitese erdekeben tenyeszkoloniakat hozott ossze igen kalandos es sokszor finom diplomaciat igenylo korulmenyek kozepette. Az allatkertet 1959 husvetjan avattak fel. Konyveben Durrell ennek a modern Noe barkajanak a tortenetet irta meg az allatkert fennallasanak huszonotodik evfordulojara.
My Family and Other Animals BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization
Celia Imrie and Toby Jones star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Gerald Durrell's much-loved comic gem. My Family and Other Animals is the classic tale of naturalist Gerald Durrell's magical 1930s childhood on pre-war Corfu. His descriptions of his eccentric family and his encounters with the local creatures are full of humour and charm, and the book has delighted readers of all ages for sixty years. Ten-year-old Gerry is the youngest member of the Durrell family, which also consists of Mother, pompous eldest son Larry, gun-mad second son Leslie, acne-ridden sister Margo, and Roger the dog. When they arrive in Corfu, Gerry is thrilled to find a paradise of exotic wildlife to be explored. Soon he is embarking on natural history expeditions, swimming in the clearblue sea and befriending the island's inhabitants.Gerry's relatives are less impressed with his exploits, especially when his burgeoning animal collection sparks chaos at the family's Christmas party... With a specially created soundtrack, this vivid adaptation takes the story out of the studio and into the Greek wilderness that enthralled Durrell the young naturalist. Duration: 2 hours approx.
My Family and Other Animals
Celia Imrie and Toby Jones star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Gerald Durrell's much-loved comic gem. My Family and Other Animals is the classic tale of naturalist Gerald Durrell's magical 1930s childhood on pre-war Corfu. His descriptions of his eccentric family and his encounters with the local creatures are full of humour and charm, and the book has delighted readers of all ages for sixty years. Ten-year-old Gerry is the youngest member of the Durrell family, which also consists of Mother, pompous eldest son Larry, gun-mad second son Leslie, acne-ridden sister Margo, and Roger the dog. When they arrive in Corfu, Gerry is thrilled to find a paradise of exotic wildlife to be explored. Soon he is embarking on natural history expeditions, swimming in the clearblue sea and befriending the island's inhabitants.Gerry's relatives are less impressed with his exploits, especially when his burgeoning animal collection sparks chaos at the family's Christmas party... With a specially created soundtrack, this vivid adaptation takes the story out of the studio and into the Greek wilderness that enthralled Durrell the young naturalist. Duration: 2 hours approx.
My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals is the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell. This tv tie in edition coincides with ITV's six part television series The Durrells. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood.
piknik es egyeb kalamajkak
Gerald Durrell ebben a kotetben csaladjarol es egyeb - ezuttal emberi - csodabogarakrol irt elbeszeleseit koti csokorba. Larry, Leslie, Margo, Gerry, no s termszetesen a mama nhny, szrazon s vizen tlt jeles kalandja utn Velencben lthatjuk viszont A halak jellem-ben megismert Ursult, akinek fekete frtjei kz immr A sz hajszlak vegylnek, de vltozatlanul kelektya jindulattal rtja magt bartai gyes-bajos dolgaiba, s ezttal is nagy buzgalommal tri kerkbe anyanyelvt. Gerry, a vilgcsavarg, egy bks hetet szeretne tlteni az angol tengerpart egy csendes szllodjban - ahol azonban olthatatlan olvassi szenvedlye flelmetes kalamajkba sodorja: kretlenl megteszik szexszakrtA nek, csak gyA zze felvilgostani a szllodai szemlyzet ilyen-olyan problmkkal kszkdA tagjait. De mg ennl is klnsebb kaland vrja egy franciaorszgi fogadban, amely nem alaptalanul ignyelt elA kelA bb besorolst a patins Michelin-fle tiknyvben... S hogy meggyA zzn bennnket sokoldalsgrl, szerzA nk a horror mA fajval is megprblkozik - teljes dicsA sggel. E. A. Poe bzvst bszkn veregette vllon, amikor Gerry helyet foglalt mellette a mennyek orszgnak egy knyelmes felhA pholyban...
Csaladom es egyeb allatfajtak
Mit lehet tenni, ha Angliaban mindig esik az eso, kod van, mindenki nathas, es Margo pattanasai nemhogy elmulnanak, hanem egyre sokasodnak?... A megoldas: at kell koltozni melegebb eg ala, pontosabban a gorog szigetvilag paradicsomi feszkebe: Korfura. A nem is kisse excentrikus Durrell csalad tagjai - a gondterhelt konyhamuvesz mama, es gyermekei: a kiterjedt barati korrel rendelkezo es rosszkedvu iro, Larry; a fegyvergyujto es -szakerto Leslie; a szerelmes hajlandosagu Margo, vegul pedig (de nem utoljara!) minden rendu es rangu eloleny szenvedelyes baratja: Gerry - mind megtalaljak a hajlamaiknak legjobban megfelelo eghajlatot es elfoglaltsagot ezen a gyonyoru szigeten, ahol csodaval hataros modon mindig sikerul emberi es nem emberi allatseregletuket ujabb, egyre erdekesebb peldanyokkal gyarapitani...
My Family and Other Animals
This collection brings together stories and extracts which explore the relationship people have with animals large and small, wild and tame, real and imaginary. From a fantastical children's fable to a complex psychological love story, readers are sure to find stories that will delight and entertain them.
My Family and Other Animals
This collection brings together stories and extracts which explore the relationship people have with animals large and small, wild and tame, real and imaginary. From a fantastical children's fable to a complex psychological love story, readers are sure to find stories that will delight and entertain them.
susogo taj
Eleg! - formedt ra Helmuth. - Epp eleget hallottunk. Beallit magahoz egy idegen, hogy a segitsegere legyen, hogy penzt adjon a vacak papagajaert. S erre maga mit csinal? Megprobalja becsapni, azt allitva, hogy a papagaj beszel. - De hisz beszl - nygte ki a nA . - Igen, de miket? - sziszegte Helmuth. Teljes hosszban kiegyenesedve ordtotta: - Azt vgja ennek a jszvA , kedves senornak az arcba, hogy kurafi! Most, hogy a senor hallotta, micsoda ocsmnysgokra tantotta maga ezt a madarat, szerintem meg sem akarja venni - folytatta Helmuth. - Szerintem most mr tven pest sem gr egy olyan madrrt, amely nemcsak A t, de az desanyjt is vrig srtette."e;Gerald Durrellt azonban sosem zavartk az ilyen cseklysgek, plne ha az a pimasz madr egy igen ritka tucumni amazonpapagj. Msodik dl-amerikai gyA jtA tjn; a '60-as vek elejn csakis Argentnban kalandozott: pampkon, erdA kben, tengerparton s hegyvidken kutatott, s szoks szerint rdekesnl rdekesebb llatokra - s emberekre bukkant. ElA bbiek kzl pumt, ocelotot, bA bjos disznflket s sznet nlkl cskolz majmokat vitt haza Jerseyre - utbbiak kztt megismerkedett egy cifra kromkodsokat tud hajadonnal, egy kt lbon jr dalos pacsirtval, valamint egy hajdani magyar miniszterelnk fival, jelenleg jszgigazgatval. Minket pedig ezttal is megrvendeztet rendthetetlen embersgvel, pratlan meslA kszsgvel s kiapadhatatlan humornak egy jabb forrsval. A nagy sikerA regny utnnyomsa az olvask krsre. A fedlrajzot s az illusztrcikat Rber Lszl ksztette.
The Aye-Aye and I
'In the gloom it came along the branches towards me, its round, hypnotic eyes blazing, its spoon-like ears turning to and fro independently like radar dishes . . . it was Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky come to life . . . one of the most incredible creatures I had ever been privileged to meet.' The fourth largest island in the world, Madagascar is home to woodlice the size of golf balls, moths the size of Regency fans and the Aye-Aye, a type of lemur held by local superstion to be an omen of death. But when Gerald Durrell visited the island, the destruction of the forests meant that the Aye-Aye and many other creatures were in danger of extinction. Told with his unique sense of humour and inimitable charm, Gerald Durrell's The Aye Aye and I is the final adventure from one Britain's best loved conservationists.
The Whispering Land
'When you have a large collection of animals to transport from one end of the world to the other you cannot, as a lot of people seem to think, just hoist them aboard the nearest ship and set off with a gay wave of your hand.' Gerald Durrell and his wife are the proud owners of a small zoo on the island of Jersey. But there's one thing that's better than a small zoo - a bigger one! So Durrell heads off to South America to collect more animals. Along windswept Patagonian shores and in Argentine tropical forests, he encounters a range of animals from penguins to elephant seals. But as always, he is drawn to those rare and interesting creatures which he hopes will thrive and breed in captivity . . . Told with enthusiasm and without sentimentality, Gerald Durrell's The Whispering Land is an often hilarious but always inspiring foray into the South American wilds.
Encounters with Animals
'I once travelled back from Africa on a ship with an Irish captain who did not like animals. This was unfortunate, because most of my luggage consisted of about two hundred odd cages of assorted wildlife . . .' Gerald Durrell's accounts of the animals he encountered on his travels were some of the first widely shared descriptions of the world's most extraordinary animals. Moving from the West Coast of Africa to the northern tip of South America - and elsewhere - Durrell observes the courtships, wars and characters of a variety of creatures, from birds of paradise, to ants and anteaters, among others.
A Zoo in My Luggage
'For many years I had wanted to start a zoo . . . any reasonable person smitten with an ambition of this sort would have secured the zoo first and obtained the animals afterwards. but throughout my life I have rarely if ever achieved what I wanted by tackling it in a logical fashion.' A Zoo in My Luggage is Gerald Durrell's account of his attempt to set up his own zoo, after years spent gathering animals for other zoos. Journeying to Cameroon, he and his wife collected numerous mammals, birds and reptiles, including Cholmondely the chimpanzee and Bug-eye the bush-baby. But their problems really began when they attempted to return with their exotic menagerie. Not only had they to get them safely home to Britain but they also had to find somewhere able and - most of all - willing to house them. Told with wit and a zest for all things furry and feathered, Gerald 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.
Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories
In this collection of stories by naturalist and animal lover Gerald Durrell, we are introduced to an eccentric cast of characters, including a perfume-wearing truffle pig and his jealous owner; an ageing set of alcoholic southern belles; a young, handsome sea captain who meets a tragic fate; a whisky-drinking hangman in Paraguay who is haunted by his victims, and a foul-mouthed talking parrot. Told with Durrell's characteristic charm and wit, these stories - some of which may or may not be autobiographical - are humorous, touching, and always highly entertaining.
Rosy is My Relative
What does a young man bequeathed GBP500 and an elephant with a taste for liquor do? Adrian Whistle thinks he has the answer - he'll give her to the circus. But it isn't so easy. Together Adrian and Rosy cut a swathe of terror and destruction through the peaceful countryside of southern England. Drunk or sober, Rosy spreads chaos in her wake, till her hapless victims claim the full majesty of the law against her . . . `His uproarious first novel.' Daily Mirror `Comic havoc!' New York Times `Enchanting . . . beautifully told.' Scotsman
Beasts in My Belfry
A charming account of Gerald Durrell's first job as a student keeper in Whipsnade Park in 1945.
My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals is the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'What we all need,' said Larry, 'is sunshine...a country where we can grow.' 'Yes, dear, that would be nice,' agreed Mother, not really listening. 'I had a letter from George this morning - he says Corfu's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go to Greece?' 'Very well, dear, if you like,' said Mother unguardedly. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood. 'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph 'A bewitching book' Sunday Times 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.
My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals is the story of the adventurous time Durrell and his family spent on the island of Corfu during his childhood. Worn down by the miserable English weather, Gerry's family takes the unusual step - for a 1930s British family - of moving somewhere hotter. Treated to the sunshine of Greece with its array of flora and fauna, young Gerald is in a budding naturalist's utopia, with the added bonus of being able to observe the unusual creatures known as his relatives. His placid mother, gun-obsessed brother Leslie, angst and acne-plagued sister Margo, and eldest brother the irascible author Larry put on a dazzling display of human quirk, and combine with strays such as Spiro the local taxi-driver to brilliant comic effect. Animal and human life combine in this beautiful, timelessly entertaining memoir. Hugh Bonneville is an acclaimed British stage, television, film and radio actor.
Dominoes: Three: My Family and Other Animals
Dominoes is a full-colour, interactive readers series that offers students a fun reading experience while building their language skills. With integrated activities and on-page glossaries the new edition of the series makes reading motivating for learners. Each reader is carefully graded to ensure each student reads from the right level from the very beginning.
The Corfu Trilogy
The trilogy that inspired ITV's television series The Durrells. Three classic tales of childhood on an island paradise - My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell - are available in a single edition for the first time in The Corfu Trilogy. 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. Durrell's memories of those enchanted days gave rise to these three classic tales, loved by generations of adults and children alike, which are now available in one volume for the first time. 'He has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentrics' Sunday Telegraph 'A delightful book full of simple, well-known things: cicadas in the olive groves, lamp fishing at night, the complexities of fish and animals - but, above all, childhood moulded by these things' New York Times
The Overloaded Ark
Gerald Durrell, director and owner of Jersey Zoo, was internationally famous for his amusing books about collecting wild animals. The Overloaded Ark, his first, remains his funniest book. It describes an expedition to the remote territory of the Cameroons in West Africa, before independence. 'A delightful book . . . You can feel his bush-shirt sticking to his back . . . Bagging a monitor, smoking out a Pangolin (scaly anteater), celebrating the capture of the rare Angwantibo (small lemur), bird liming for Giant Kingfishers on the warm, milky waters of Lake Soden: he communicates every detail of his experiences with just the right degree of zest.' New Statesman
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