Gerald Durrell [Hardcover]

Douglas Botting (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 1999

When the much-loved Gerald Durrell died aged seventy in 1995, he left behind not only his bestselling My Family and Other Animals and A Zoo in My Luggage, but also the legacy of the zoo he'd dreamed of as a small boy, where he pioneered the captive breeding of animals for conservation. With the authorization of Gerald Durrell's widow, Lee, and his surviving family, biographer Douglas Botting traces the life of the world-famous naturalist and popular author of over thirty-seven bestsellers. Brother of the famous novelist Lawrence Durrell, the younger Durrell always saw his writings about his eccentric family in Imperial India or on the idyllic island of Corfu and his early interest in birds and beasts as the means of financing his great passion: the breeding of endangered species for their return to the wild. Like Jacques Cousteau, he traveled across the globe, bringing the exotic natural world closer to ordinary people, and presented a dozen different television documentary series on zoology, such as Catch Me a Colobus and Ark on the Move, which gave him an international audience. As he traces Durrell's growing menagerie of tapirs, angwantibos, gorillas, lemurs, tamarins, and Chumley the chimp, Botting brings to life the man Sir David Attenborough called "a pioneer with a marvelous sense of humor." "[Botting's] admiration and affection for his subject are infectious" - Sunday Times (London)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Although his work is not widely read today, Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) was among the world's most popular naturalists in the 1950s and early '60s. He traveled to then-remote places such as Siberia, Cameroon, Tierra del Fuego, and Mauritius in search of odd zoological specimens and reported his travels in books like The Whispering Land and My Family and Other Animals. In the first full-length biography devoted to Durrell, Douglas Botting writes of his passage from gifted child amateur to scientifically trained professional. That passage was inspired in part by Gerald's older (and more famous) brother, the novelist and memoirist Lawrence Durrell, who gave Gerald a copy of Jean-Henri Fabre's classic Insect Life: Souvenirs of a Naturalist and encouraged his younger brother to follow his dream of living and working in the wild. Gerald Durrell, as Botting shows, went on to make signal contributions as a conservationist who founded the Jersey Zoo and other organizations devoted to protecting endangered species by breeding them in captivity and then reintroducing them into their native habitats. (Among those species were the Siberian ferret, highland gorilla, snow leopard, bespectacled bear, and golden lion tamarin.) Botting's well-written biography will be of interest not only to admirers of Durrell's work but also to students of the environmentalist and conservationist movements. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

All Durrell fans will want to own this captivating and deeply moving but surprisingly (for an authorized book) candid biography. It offers a rounded portrait of all sides of the man-naturalist, animal lover, champion of conservation, prolific author, zoo founder, bon vivant, documentary filmmaker, poet, broadcaster, explorer, marathon globetrotter. Getting past the public persona of the charming, modest, resolute, jovial guru, British writer Botting (Humboldt and the Cosmos) reveals a very different Gerald Durrell (1925-1995)Aan astute, cunning, sometimes overbearing political animal; an alcoholic who mixed booze and tranquilizers; a visionary whose seemingly hopeless self-appointed mission to save the world's endangered species drove him to despair, sporadic rage and misanthropy, costing him his privacy, peace of mind, health and first marriage. Durrell's zoo, which he founded on the English isle of Jersey in 1959, pioneered the captive breeding of animals threatened with extinction, with the aim of reintroducing them to their native habitats. In some ways Jersey recapitulated his boyhood idyll on the Greek island of Corfu, where Durrell (born in India) had moved from London with his bohemian family in 1935 at the age of 10. Botting, who had exclusive access to the Durrell family archives and to Durrell's voluminous private papers, fills this uninhibited biography with hitherto unpublished autobiographical sketches, letters and diary excerpts; with wonderful stories of animals and people; with a perceptive account of Durrell's relationships with his two wives and his novelist brother, Lawrence, who sparked his interest in writing. Though critical of Durrell at times, this extraordinary saga remains true to the adventurous spirit of Durrell's writings, capturing a dynamo beset by a gnawing fear that his life's work had been in vain. Photos. Agent, Andrew Hawson at John Johnson. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; First edition (September 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786706554
• ISBN-13: 978-0786706556
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,698,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed and inclusive biography., October 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Gerald Durrell (Hardcover)

Botting has done a first rate job covering the life of Gerald Durrell. One of the obstacles Botting had too overcome was the great familiarity of the various events in Durrell's life that Durrell himself recorded in his 37 books. Of course, not all 37 books were autobiographical, but a good many were and the reader who has read even just one or two of Durrell's books will get a sense of deja-vu. But where Durrell always molded his tales into humourous and engaging stories, Botting approached them as an historian. For the first time, we get dates and places. By the by, fans of Larry Durrell will find Bottings book an asset, as the lives of the Durrell brothers were - like many brothers - quite entwined.

Botting also does a first rate job in placing Durrell's achievment and accomplishments amongst his fellow conservationists: Gerald Durrell really was one of the great.

PS. Now only if Durrell's video series were available for home purchase.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm, intimate look at a wonderful man, October 23, 1999

By 

Terry Kirker (Whittier, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gerald Durrell (Hardcover)

I always thought of Gerry Durrell as my own secret discovery, and gave copies of his books to all my friends. Also visited the Jersey Trust twice....well worth it. This book reads like the diary of an old and dear friend, sharing much and explaining a lot. He was ahead of us all in his love for the endangered earth and its living creatures.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In depth, lively biography, February 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gerald Durrell (Hardcover)

This must be one of the best biographies I have read about anyone. Douglas Botting is to be congratulated on his meticulous research and unbiased approach. He gives us a wonderful insight into this complex man's extraordinary life. All 607 pages are highly readable and I found it hard to put the book down. I particularly enjoyed the account of Durrell's happy go lucky, unconventional childhood in Greece surrounded by his mad mad family. As Gerald Durrell would have wanted, there is a lively quality about the telling of his story. There were so many facets to this man's character and Botting has been at pains to dig deep to bring these to the fore. Having read Durrell's books many years ago I found myself enjoying the adventures of his life all over again, but in a different way, now that I understand more about the man and his background. I feel this is a 'must' read for anyone who has enjoyed Gerald Durrell's books