Gerald Durrell was a naturalist, author, media personality, conservationist and founder of both the internationally renowned Jersey Zoo and what is now known as the Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust. A passionate and inspiring advocate of the need for the conservation of animals and plants and their habitats, he was also a brilliant storyteller. Though he had almost no formal education he became a prolific writer, publishing numerous articles and thirty-seven books including Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods, before his death in 1995, aged seventy.
I do assure you, the world needs Durrell. -- Sir David Attenborough The enduring joy of the book resides in reading about a bohemian family when you have never been part of one yourself . . . One night I laughed so hard I slipped out of bed, whacking my head on the nightstand -- Meg Rosoff * The Guardian * He [Durrell] produced a literary masterpiece that remains the finest evocation of paradise ever written. He built a paradise based on his own beliefs of what a zoo should be. And after his death in 1995, he left behind an organisation that works to restore a touch of paradise to humanity and to everything else that lives. -- Simon Barnes * Independent *