Myself and Other Animals

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Myself and Other Animals Author: Format: Hardback First Published: Published By: Penguin Books Ltd
string(3) "352"
Pages: 352 Language: English ISBN: 9780241738139 Categories: , , , ,

A posthumous work from the beloved conservationist and naturalist Gerald Durrell, to celebrate the centenary of his birth, with a new foreword by HRH Princess Anne. ‘Gerald Durrell was magic’ SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH • ‘A wise, genial and world-encompassing book’ SUNDAY TIMES • ‘Fills important gaps in the biographical narrative . . . Truly, there is magic here’ GUARDIAN • ‘One of the finest and most lyrical nature writers in English’ OBSERVER Myself and Other Animals is a new book mosaicked from unpublished autobiographies, uncollected pieces and previously published extracts from Durrell’s work and archives. The result is an extraordinary journey through Durrell’s life in his own words, edited and introduced by his widow Lee Durrell. Drawing on a memoir that Durrell started writing before he became too ill to continue it, and an unfinished book from a trip to Australia in 1969 to the Great Barrier Reef, Northern Territory and Queensland, here is the unvarnished story of Durrell’s life, from touching family tributes to golden bats and pink pigeons. Moving from India to England and then to the always sun-lit Corfu, told with dry wit and insight into our fellow animals, here is the vivid finale of one of Britain’s most beloved conservationists and prose stylists. ‘A moving tribute to Gerald’s endeavours and achievements as a conservationist’ SPECTATOR

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Nature’s most rapt inspector, ally and celebrant . . . I could read about Durrell’s wildlife encounters all day . . . a wise, genial and world-encompassing book -- John Walsh * Sunday Times * Fills important gaps in the biographical narrative . . . Truly, there is magic here -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian * A moving tribute to Gerald's endeavours and achievements as a conservationist -- Richard Bradford * Spectator * Celebrates his extraordinary life in technicolour -- Matt Nixson * Daily Express * Replete with characters of feathers, fur and fin, it offers an intimate picture of the naturalist and his travels * National Geographic * A generous and magnificent achievement – an autobiography, of sorts, composed of excerpts both well-known and rare, each carrying Durrell’s distinctive, engaging and entertaining voice. A century on from the beloved conservationist’s birth, when so many forms of life remain at risk of extinction, it also stands as an important call to action before it’s too late -- Julian Hoffman, author of Lifelines and Irreplaceable

Author Biography

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.