Gerald Durrell (Authorised Biography): The Authorised Biography

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Synopsis -------- This is an account of Gerald Durrell, who was a world-famous naturalist and popular author who wrote some 37 yarns, including the bestselling "My Family and Other Animals". His other books include "Birds, Beasts and Relatives", "The Bafut Beagles" and "A Zoo in My Luggage". Above all, he paved the way in print for the popular presentation of the natural world on television and presented 12 series himself - the early ones - of his own expeditions. Sir David Attenborough has said: "He was responsible for changing people's attitudes to zoology and changing their agenda. He showed them small animals could be as interesting as apes and elephants...He was a pioneer." From the Back Cover ------------------- When Gerald Durrell died in 1995, at the age of seventy, he left behind an extraordinary legacy. As a pioneer animal conservationist, television personality and much-loved writer who inspired generations of readers with books like 'My Family and Other Animals', 'The Bafut Beagles', 'A Zoo in My Luggage' and 'The Amateur Naturalist', he packed a dozen lives into a single lifetime. A charismatic, passionate and above all dedicated to his crusade on behalf of animals and endangered species, he was founder of the world's leading zoos and of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, now renamed the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in his honour. "Douglas Botting is to be congratulated on 'Gerald Durrell'. He has done a magnificent job in telling the complex story of a complex person, s and all." DAVID BELLAMY 'Literary Review' "Douglas Botting's biography is as large in spirit as the subject himself and opens the mind to many crucial concerns." DAVID HUGHES, 'Sunday telegraph' "A monumental biography … Douglas Botting is sympathetic, perfectly qualified. His book does Durrell's memory as much justice as the Jersey sanctuary where his ideals live on." ANTHONY HOLDEN, 'Sunday Express'