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Gerald Durrell was born on January 7, 1925 in Jamshedpur, India to British parents. After the death of his father in 1928, the family lived in England and Europe before settling in Corfu, where he spent much of his childhood. Educated by private tutors, he became interested in natural history and amassed a private collection of dozens of creatures from scorpions to owls. He went on numerous wildlife expeditions and founded the Jersey Zoological Park and the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust with the purpose of breeding endangered species. His first book, The Overloaded Ark, was published in 1953. He wrote 37 books during his lifetime including My Family and Other Animals, The Bafut Beagles, A Zoo in My Luggage, Rosy Is My Relative, and The Mockery Bird. He received the Order of the British Empire in 1982 and was featured in the United Nations' Roll of Honor for Environmental Achievement in 1988. He died from complications related to a liver transplant on January 30, 1995 at the age of 70. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from My Family and Other Animals… (more)
My Family and Other Animals 5,097 copies, 146 reviews
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives 1,224 copies, 37 reviews
A Zoo in My Luggage 886 copies, 16 reviews
The Garden of the Gods 680 copies, 19 reviews
The Bafut Beagles 665 copies, 13 reviews
The Whispering Land 640 copies, 12 reviews
The Amateur Naturalist 610 copies, 1 review
The Drunken Forest 609 copies, 5 reviews
Fillets of Plaice 602 copies, 5 reviews
Menagerie Manor 567 copies, 8 reviews
The Corfu Trilogy 519 copies, 6 reviews
Two in the Bush 489 copies, 4 reviews
Rosy Is My Relative 473 copies, 5 reviews
Encounters with Animals 469 copies, 3 reviews
Beasts in My Belfry 451 copies, 10 reviews
The Overloaded Ark 444 copies, 10 reviews
Catch Me a Colobus 442 copies, 4 reviews
Three Singles to Adventure 435 copies, 8 reviews
The Stationary Ark 298 copies, 5 reviews
The New Noah 216 copies, 2 reviews
The Mockery Bird 174 copies, 4 reviews
Beasts in My Bed (Footnotes) 153 copies, 1 review
The Ark's Anniversary 143 copies, 4 reviews
The Fantastic Flying Journey 132 copies, 1 review
The Donkey Rustlers (Lions) 130 copies, 3 reviews
Durrell in Russia 84 copies, 2 reviews
My Favourite Animal Stories 65 copies, 1 review
Ark on the Move 39 copies, 2 reviews
Best of Gerald Durrell 30 copies, 1 review
Toby the Tortoise 30 copies, 1 review
Wild Time 29 copies
Keeper 27 copies
Island zoo 22 copies
Selected Works 13 copies
My Family and Other Animals (Adapted) (Original author) 12 copies
A Collection of Action Stories (Contributor) 7 copies
Ostrov v nebezpečí 1 copy, 1 review
Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia (Foreword) 231 copies, 1 review
Watchers at the Pond (Introduction, some editions) 145 copies, 3 reviews
Best Dog Stories (Introduction) 107 copies, 1 review
Whatever Happened to Margo? (Preface, some editions) 105 copies, 1 review
Foundations of Fear (Contributor) 96 copies, 2 reviews
Richard Adams's Favorite Animal Stories (Contributor) 67 copies, 1 review
The Enchanted Canopy (Foreword) 47 copies, 1 review
The Durrells in Corfu Series 1 (Original book) 34 copies
Twelve Gothic Tales (Oxford Twelves) (Contributor) 29 copies, 3 reviews
Famous and Curious Animal Stories (Contributor) 28 copies, 1 review
Zoo: The Modern Ark (Foreword) 23 copies
Favorite Animal Stories (Contributor) 12 copies

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Short biography
Gerald Durrell was born in India in 1925. His family settled on Corfu when Durrell was a boy and he spent his time studying its wildlife. He relates these experiences in the trilogy beginning with My Family and Other Animals, and continuing with Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods. In his books he writes with wry humour and great perception about both the humans and the animals he meets.

On leaving Corfu he returned to England to work on the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper. His adventures there are told with characteristic energy in Beasts in My Belfry. A few years later, Durrell began organising his own animal-collecting expeditions. The first, to the Cameroons, was followed by expeditions to Paraguay, Argentina and Sierra Leone. He recounts these experiences in a number of books, including The Drunken Forest. Durrell also visited many countries while shooting various television series, including An Amateur Naturalist.

In 1958 Gerald Durrell realised a lifelong dream when he set up the Jersey Zoological Park, followed a few years later by the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust.

Rosy is My Relative, his first novel, was published in 1968. Whether in a factual account of an expedition or a work of non-fiction, Gerald Durrell's style is exuberant, passionate and acutely observed. Gerald Durrell died in 1995.
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