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| Gerald Durrell | 
| Author: Douglas Botting
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $1.52
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 629323
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 656
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 2.1
ISBN: 0786706554
Dewey Decimal Number: 590.92
EAN: 9780786706556
ASIN: 0786706554
Publication Date: September 16, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: A few names and dates written on rear end paper and inside cover. Short inscription on front end paper. Ships Within 24 Hours - Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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| 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
Product Description
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)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Durrell: the Unauthorized Species April 3, 2006
Douglas Botting's new biography of Gerald Durrell, a charming man whose unique Zoo, Wild Life Preservation Trust and deeply touching , hilarious stories have saved many an animal from extinction and moved people around the world to join the conservation effort, is an "xtrordenry" tale of one man's dream come true. Botting's obvious fascination with Durrell's personality and mission, good grasp of the world of nature and travel, as well as his humorous streak, are an ideal mix of credentials for someone attempting to recount a story of this supreme "raconteur."
After a vivid depiction of Durrell's colorful early childhood in colonial India, Botting perceptively discerns and fits together all the pieces of Gerald's adolescent years that made him into a shy but passionate and original man with a unique vision. It was in the enchanted atmosphere of pre-war Corfu, with its unspoilt fauna and picturesque dwellers, that Durrell's free spirit and sense of wonder first blossomed, enhanced by the lack of stiflingly uniform influence of formal schooling. His widowed mother's warm devotion and faith in Gerald's endeavors, creative encouragement from his older brother and budding writer Lawrence, coupled with his tutors' idiosyncratic influences and the island's offer of the freedom to explore the natural world, all combined to account for the very unconventionality of Durrell's upbringing and personality that would later make people yield to his charisma and daring.
Botting manages to stay true to the spirit of Gerald Durrell, as if the magic firefly of the epilogue lights up his way throughout the book. I also liked Botting's impartiality in dealing with such complicated emotional roller-coasters as Gerald's relationship with his first wife Jacquie and his alcohol problem, which he never downplays, at the same time managing to convey Durrell's intrinsic honesty and charm. The only regret that will forever haunt this biography is that Durrell unfortunately didn't have time to pen it himself.
 A conservation hero September 6, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A mammoth book for an equally large individual, in bulk and spirit. Having read Durrell's first books, was equally curious about the author and was not disappointed..looked forward to each page, particularly his expeditions if not his highly personal life with his two wives. His alcohol consumption was simply sad, and even though the author states it may not have affected his work, I wonder what he would have achieved if he had not been looking forward to each drink, beginning in the morning. But he is a hero to me, and has opened up the wonders of Madagascar, and hopefully to the continuing need to perserve its fauna and flora.
Durrell fans, this one's worth having ! May 14, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Douglas Botting makes a fairly good job of Durrell's biography. Lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, with numerous quotations from Durrell's personal notebooks thrown in for good measure,this book sheds a new light on the life of one of the most amazing men of the 20th century. However, this book is recommended for Durrell fans, and not for the plain inquisitive who want to bone up on the life and times of Gerald Durrell.They would do better to stick to the Gerald Durrell accounts .The author has a tendency of repeating parts of the Durrell accounts in his own words,and relying too much on the Durrell works as his guide( but then again it is difficult to pick up the thread of people and events as many as 50 years later, with a world war inbetween ). All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable 600-pager that Durrell fans will devour in no time at all. Judging by this one,the Gavin Maxwell biography should be well worth reading ..
In depth, lively biography March 1, 2000
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
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
Warm, intimate look at a wonderful man October 24, 1999
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
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.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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