Douglas Botting - Gerald Durrell

THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY

Douglas Botting

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers in 1999

Copyright © Douglas Boning 1999

The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006387305

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2014 ISBN: 9780007381227

Version: 2019-06-10

Further reviews for Gerald Durrell :

‘Douglas Botting is to be congratulated on Gerald Durrell . He has done a magnificent job in telling the complex story of a complex person, wrinkles and all. Here is your chance to rediscover the man who for over sixty years exasperated and fascinated his friends and fans, giving hope to generations that there was a future for animals, plants and people.’

DAVID BELLAMY, Literary Review

‘The book serves up so much by way of compelling detail that the reader forges happily ahead … [an] affectionate account of a rumbustious figure.’

PENELOPE LIVELY, Daily Telegraph

‘Douglas Botting’s biography of Gerald Durrell is a whacking great book … But then, the environmentalist, naturalist, humorist, bestselling author and adventurer was a whacking great personality. His riotous enjoyment of life and his passion-ate, loving struggle for animal conservation fly off the pages. It’s an absorbing, hugely appealing story.’

New Scientist

‘Botting’s admiration and affection for his subject are infectious.’

Sunday Times

‘An extraordinary story … a biographer’s dream.’

EDWARD MARRIOTT, Evening Standard

‘Douglas Botting quotes continually from unpublished material – letters, journals, diaries – which prove to be a treasure-house of agile and acute observation … [He] is a perceptive, vigorous, unabashed chronicler … at his best in dealing with the complexities of Durrell’s own character and the crises in his life … This is the most enjoyable biography I have read for years.’

J.B. PICK, Scotsman

‘A compelling read.’

DAVID NICHOLSON-LORD, Financial Times

‘Botting gives us a full-on Durrell … a wonderfully detailed account.’

RICHARD D NORTH, Independent

‘Exhaustive research … poignant reading.’

CAROLINE MOOREHEAD, Spectator

‘Absorbing.’

Tatler

‘Gerald Durrell was a man of immense character as this enormous biography testifies … and he shines out of these pages. Botting’s writing style is a delight. He has a wry eye and his own dry wit … He has told a powerful story.’

JULIA LANGDON, The Herald (Glasgow)

‘Wonderfully affectionate account … wonderfully readable.’

CHRISTINE BARKER, Birmingham Post

‘The best parts are the descriptions of furry animals – both Durrell’s and the author’s – which appear on page after page … the book is a love story of a sort.’

ROY HATTERS LEY, Mail on Sunday

‘Joyful reading … Botting is on sure, captivating ground as he relates Durrell’s escapades … a valuable chronology of Durrell’s experiences.’

ROSEMARY GORING, Scotland on Sunday

‘Douglas Botting paints a vivid picture … an excellent reflection of the man behind the magic’

ISOBEL OSMONT, Jersey Evening News

‘This revealing and compulsive biography will inspire many generations to come.’

JOHN BURTON, World Land Trust Review

‘Botting’s biography is vast, vibrant, intense.’

MICK MIDDLES, Manchester Evening News

‘In this superb biography Douglas Botting keeps you turning the pages and even succeeds in conjuring tears at the end. Meticulous research has enabled him to bring us an in-depth picture of the man. It is a measure of its success that I seriously resented having to go to work, or to bed, whilst reading it.’

HILARY PAIPETI, The Corfiot Magazine , Greece

Right in the Hart of the Africn Jungel a small wite man lives. Now there is one rather xtrordenry fackt about him that is that he is the frind of all animals.

From ‘The Man of Animals’ by Gerald Durrell, aged ten

Whoever saves one life,

Saves the world.

The Talmud

When you get to the Pearly Gates and St Peter asks you, ‘Well, what did you do?’ if you can say, ‘I saved a species from extinction,’ I think he’ll say, ‘OK, well, come on in.’

John Cleese

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

PRAISE

EPIGRAPH

PREFACE

PROLOGUE

PART 1: ‘The Boy’s Mad … Snails in his Pockets!’

1 Landfall in Jamshedpur: India 1925–1928

2 ‘The Most Ignorant Boy in the School’: England 1928–1935

3 The Gates of Paradise: Corfu 1935–1936

4 The Garden of the Gods: Corfu 1937–1939

5 Gerald in Wartime: England 1939–1945

6 Odd-Beast Boy: Whipsnade 1945–1946

7 Planning for Adventure: 1946–1947

PART 2: Promise Fulfilled

8 To the Back of Beyond: First Cameroons Expedition 1947–1948

9 In the Land of the Fon: Second Cameroons Expedition 1948–1949

10 New Worlds to Conquer: Love and Marriage 1949–1951

11 Writing Man: 1951–1953

12 Of Beasts and Books: 1953–1955

13 The Book of the Idyll: 1955

14 Man and Nature: 1955–1956

15 ‘A Wonderful Place for a Zoo’: 1957–1959

PART 3: The Price of Endeavour

16 A Zoo is Born: 1959–1960

17 ‘We’re All Going to be Devoured’: Alarms and Excursions 1960–1962

18 Durrell’s Ark: 1962–1965

19 Volcano Rabbits and the King of Corfu: 1965–1968

20 Crack-Up: 1968–1970

21 Pulling Through: 1970–1971

22 The Palace Revolution: 1971–1973

23 Gerald in America: 1973–1974

24 ‘Two Very Lost People’: 1975–1976

25 Love Story: Prelude: 1977–1978

26 Love Story: Finale: 1978–1979

PART 4: Back on the Road

27 A Zoo with a View: 1979–1980

28 Ark on the Move: From the Island of the Dodo to the Land of the Lemur 1980–1982

29 The Amateur Naturalist: 1982–1984

30 To Russia with Lee: 1984–1985

31 Grand Old Man: 1985–1991

PART 5: A Long Goodbye

32 ‘Details of my Hypochondria’: 1992–1994

33 ‘A Whole New Adventure’: 1994–1995

AFTERWORD

THE DURRELL WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST