Gerald Durrell

Fillets of Plaice combines Gerald Durrell's love for animals in all their forms with the humorous anecdotes about his family for which he is so well known from My Family and Other Animals and its sequels. Larry, Margot, Leslie and Mother are all present and correct, but so too are spiders, lizards and water fleas.

Ark on the Move is an exciting journey which inspired an international television series based on the author's animal rescue and conservation missions. Even the most cautious of travellers would, I think, be thrilled at the idea of visiting a remote tropical island. There seems to be something about tropical islands that stirs the blood of even the most unadventurous souls. Lying in the Indian Ocean, the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar – where millions of years of evolutionary isolation created a flora and fauna unique in the world – provide the exotic setting for Gerald Durrell's expeditionary rescue work with animals. In his personal and delightful way he entertains, educates and makes a dramatic appeal to us all about the distressing state of these beautiful and endangered species around the world and shows us the serious consequences to life and its future on this earth.

Follow the explorations and adventures of Gerald Durrell while he searches for birds, bats and reptiles on the island of Mauritius in Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons. Mauritius, a green and mountainous island in the Indian Ocean, was once the home of the ill-fated dodo. By the 1970s it still had many unique but seriously endangered species. To rescue some of these creatures from extinction, Gerald Durrell spent uncomfortable nights in the jungle looking for bats and pink pigeons, climbed near-vertical rock faces to find Telfair's skinks and Gunther's geckos, and spent his spare time among the coral reefs with their varied multicoloured marine life. By the end of his trip, Durrell had an extraordinary collection of animals to take to his Jersey sanctuary from where the progeny could, in time, be restored to Mauritius.

A pot-pourri of humorous animal anecdotes concocted by the famous wildlife lover, leading conservationist and award-winning author of My Family and Other Animals. Endearingly funny, occasionally outrageous, Catch me a Colobos is classic Gerald Durrell. Hectic, hilarious days at his Jersey zoo and forays to various corners of the earth to rescue animal species in danger of extinction provide a series of wonderful stories that are wry, witty and wonderful. Apes get loose, tigers get pregnant and women fall by the droves for a handsome zoo keeper . . .

If you want to know how to make friends with an ant-eater, an electric eel, or a porcupine or a boa-constrictor, The New Noah is your book. Gerald Durrell goes around the world looking for wild animals, taking his natural curiosity, interest and affection along with him on these expeditions. In dealing with their antics and quirks, Durrell discovers how to feed and train them and prepare them for the zoos to which they are destined. This is a fascinating book, where the reader is introduced to a variety of charming and curious animals such as capybaras, hoatzins, and tucotucos, not to mention a tame curassow called Cuthbert.

Two in the Bush is a record of the six-month journey which took Gerald Durrell, his wife Jacquie, and two cameramen through New Zealand, Australia and Malaya. The object was, first, to see what was being done about the conservation of wild life in these countries, and, secondly, to make a series of television films for the BBC. They were introduced to many rare and remarkable animals – royal albatrosses, tuataras, duck-billed platypuses, flying lizards and long-nosed bandicoots, as well as some equally unusual humans. Anyone who has read The Overloaded Ark, The Bafut Beagles or The Whispering Land will have enjoyed Gerald Durrell’s enthusiastic adventuring and his delight in the absurdity of the situations in which he finds himself. His observation of animal – and human – behaviour is always informative and often hilarious.

Gerald Durrell is on his way to South America on a quest to capture specimens that have never before been brought back alive. And it turns into quite an adventure when he encounters timid squirrel monkeys, wailing rats, an overly affectionate bird christened Cuthbert and a bad-tempered anaconda! Three Singles to Adventure shows how bringing back a living collection of animals can be frustrating, exciting and damned hard work, but it’s never dull!

"Moja semja i drugie zveri" - eto "kniga, zavorazhivajuschaja v bukvalnom smysle slova" (Sunday Times) i "samaja voskhititelnaja idillija, kakuju tolko mozhno voobrazit" (The New Yorker). S neizmennoj ljubovju, bezuprechnoj tochnostju i nepodrazhaemym jumorom Darrell rasskazyvaet o pjatiletnem prebyvanii svoej semi (v tom chisle starshego brata Larri, to est Lourensa Darrella - buduschego avtora znamenitogo "Aleksandrijskogo kvarteta") na grecheskom ostrove Korfu. I sam etot roman, i ego prodolzhenija razoshlis po miru mnogomillionnymi tirazhami, stali nastolnymi knigami uzhe u neskolkikh pokolenij chitatelej, a v Anglii dazhe voshli v shkolnuju programmu. "Trilogija o Korfu" trizhdy perenosilas na teleekran, prichem poslednij raz - v 2016-2019 godakh, kogda britanskaja kompanija ITV vypustila chetyre sezona seriala "Darrelly", odnim iz postanovschikov kotorogo vystupil Edvard Kholl ("Abbatstvo Daunton", "Miss Marpl Agaty Kristi").Roman publikuetsja v polnom perevode, vypolnennom Sergeem Taskom, chi perevody Toma Vulfa i Dzhona Le Karre, Stivena Kinga i Pola Ostera, Iena Makjuena, Richarda Jejtsa i Frensisa Skotta Fitsdzheralda uzhe stali klassicheskimi.

'What we tried to do in Jersey is create a new sort of zoo. I think we have succeeded.' In The Stationary Ark Gerald Durrell describes his battles to create his vision of a new sort of zoo in Jersey, chronicling his successes and failures and adding a liberal sprinkling of zoo animal tales along the way. Much of Durrell's personal vision and approach to the aims of captive breeding and conservation is set out here, as well as aspirations for the future of zookeeping: ‘in our next step, we plan to form the Trust into a kind of mini-university of wildlife husbandry and breeding’.

When Gerald Durrell was six he told his mother that he intended to have his own zoo. The Ark's Anniversary is the story of how he achieved his ambition – and how his dream grew into The Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, a major world force in wildlife conservation. Whether the author is on the trail of a bank manager or a pygmy hog, whether he is courting patrons or tracking a Gunther's gecko, Durrell’s enthusiasm remains undiminished as he brings together a wonderful collection of rare and exotic animals in order to save them from extinction.

'Most children at the tender age of six or so are generally full of the most impractical schemes for becoming policemen, firemen or engine drivers when they grow up . . . I knew exactly what I was going to do: I was going to have my own zoo.' Menagerie Manor is the hugely entertaining account of how much-loved conservationist and author Gerald Durrell fulfilled his lifelong ambition to found his own private sanctuary for endangered species in Jersey with the help of his wife, a selfless staff and a reluctant bank manager. With a foreword by Lee Durrell, Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, this book about the trials and wonders of living in the middle of a zoo is a classic that will continue to bring pleasure to those who grew up reading Durrell, and deserves a whole new readership.

If you loved My Family and Other Animals and can’t get enough of the Durrells after the Corfu series, The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium is the book for you. It constitutes a series of anecdotal snippets and short stories including ‘The Picnic’, a laugh-out-loud account of an ill-fated Durrell family excursion, which should have been a relaxing, jolly affair. But with the Durrells things are seldom straightforward and on this occasion all that could go wrong did go wrong – except Gerald Durrell's sense of humour in recounting the tale. Other hilarious and surreal Roald Dahlesque stories ensue, including the critically acclaimed Gothic horror story ‘The Entrance’.

U Darrella zveri kak ljudi. U nikh litsa, ne mordy, u nikh kharakter, a ne instinkt, u nikh - dusha, sprjatannaja pod kozhnym i sherstjanym pokrovom. Chitat knigi Darrella ne tolko pouchitelno, no i veselo, kak veselo puteshestvovat s gerojami Dzheroma Klapki Dzheroma po Temze ot Kingstona i do Oksforda ili pit vino na bortu "Arabelly" s piratami blagorodnogo kapitana Blada. No ukho vse zhe nado derzhat vostro. Klyki ne zuby, i kogti otnjud ne paltsy.V nastojaschee izdanie izbrannykh sochinenij znamenitogo anglijskogo zoologa i puteshestvennika, odnoj iz kultovykh figur XX veka, voshli chetyre ego populjarnye povesti - "Zveri v moej zhizni", "Put kengurenka", "Pojmajte mne kolobusa" i "Pomeste-zverinets", - v kotorykh kraski zemnoj prirody i bujstvo zhizni, ne skovannoj industrialnymi ramkami, vseljajut v nas nadezhdu na to, chto planeta Zemlja v ee dolgom bluzhdanii vokrug Solntsa ne sobetsja s nuzhnogo kursa i ne prevratitsja v obezvozhennuju pustynju, gde ni kolobusov, ni kengurenkov, ni lesov, ni vozdukha - nichego, krome vetra, igrajuschego s tenjami.

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 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.'Funny and readable and hugely charming' i ‘One of the finest and most lyrical nature writers in English’ OBSERVER'A moving tribute to Gerald's endeavours and achievements as a conservationist' SPECTATOR

Gerald Durrell introduces an eccentric cast of characters in this entertaining collection of stories, first published in 1991.Which of these stories is true and which is semi-true I have, of course, not the slightest intention of telling you, but I hope this will not detract from your enjoyment . . .In the title story, part of the inspiration behind the ITV drama The Durrells, we join his family in Corfu, where Gerry joins forces with Larry and Margo in encouraging Mother to consider finding a new husband, only to rue the consequences. Highlights from the other tales in this collection are the acquisition of a strongly perfumed pig named Esmerelda, a foul-mouthed parrot called Moses, and a compulsive gambler who inspires a miracle.Written with Durrell's usual sharp eye for observing humour in any situation, Marrying Off Mother will delight fans both old and new and is the perfect celebration of Durrell's hundredth birthday.'A renegade who was right . . . He was truly a man before his time' – David Attenborough

Written with Gerald Durrell's usual sharp eye for observing humour in any situation, Rosy Is My Relative will delight fans both old and new.At the age of thirty, Adrian Rookwhistle's life hasn't quite turned out the way he'd have hoped. Working an unfulfilling job as a clerk in the city and living under the tyranny of his fearsome landlady, he can't help but think that there is more to life.However, all of this suddenly changes when he receives a curious letter from his dying uncle who has bequeathed him £500 and an elephant by the name of Rosy who has a seemingly unquenchable thirst for liquor. At a loss of what to do with his unexpectedly gargantuan – and rarely sober – inheritance, Adrian sets forth on a journey believing to have the answer to his dilemma; he'll give her away to the circus.Together Adrian and Rosy carve a trail of destruction through the peaceful countryside of southern England, meeting a curious cast of misfits along the way. Drunk or sober, Rosy spreads chaos in her wake, until the full weight of the law finally catches up with her . . .

"Vydat mamu zamuzh" - eto prodolzhenie romanov "Moja semja i drugie zveri" - "knigi, zavorazhivajuschej v bukvalnom smysle slova" (Sunday Times) i "samoj voskhititelnoj idillii, kakuju tolko mozhno voobrazit" (The New Yorker), - "Ptitsy, zveri i rodstvenniki" i "Sad bogov", a takzhe sbornikov "Prazdniki, zveri i prochie nesuraznosti" i "Piknik i prochie koshmary". S neizmennoj ljubovju i nepodrazhaemym jumorom Darrell rasskazyvaet o prebyvanii svoej semi (v tom chisle starshego brata Larri, to est Lorensa Darrella - buduschego avtora znamenitogo "Aleksandrijskogo kvarteta") na grecheskom ostrove Korfu i ob ikh dalnejshikh prikljuchenijakh, demonstriruja samuju shirokuju palitru pisatelskogo masterstva vplot do goticheskoj istorii o prizrakakh; zdes mogut dratsja na dueli iz-za svini - okhotnitsy na trjufeli, popugaj-skvernoslov terroriziruet ves London, a nashi starye znakomye Margo, Lesli, Dzherri i Larri pytajutsja vydat zamuzh svoju mat s samymi neozhidannymi posledstvijami. Eti romany i sborniki razoshlis po miru mnogomillionnymi tirazhami, stali nastolnymi knigami uzhe u neskolkikh pokolenij chitatelej, a v Anglii dazhe voshli v shkolnuju programmu. "Trilogija o Korfu" (s techeniem vremeni razrosshajasja do shesti knig) trizhdy perenosilas na teleekran, prichem poslednij raz - v 2016-2019 godakh, kogda britanskaja kompanija ITV vypustila serial "Darrelly", odnim iz postanovschikov kotorogo vystupil Edvard Kholl ("Abbatstvo Daunton", "Miss Marpl Agaty Kristi").Sbornik publikuetsja v novom perevode, vypolnennom Sergeem Taskom, chi perevody Toma Vulfa i Dzhona Le Karre, Stivena Kinga i Pola Ostera, Iena Makjuena, Richarda Jejtsa i Frensisa Skotta Fitsdzheralda uzhe stali klassicheskimi.

"Mina ise ja muud loomad" on kokku pandud Gerald Durrelli poolelijäänud ja avaldamata memuaaridest ja reisikirjadest, tekstid on valinud ja toimetanud Gerald Durelli lesk Lee Durrell. Tänu temale saame asuda erakordsele teekonnale koos Gerald Durelliga, saatjaks soe huumor ja soe süda, mille poolest Gerald Durrell ka Eesti lugejale hästi tuntud on. "Gerry astus välja kõikide loomade kaitseks, ta võitles mitte ainult karismaatiliste, suurte, ägedate ja ilusate isendite, vaid ka tundmatute, pisikeste, igavate eest, keda ta nimetas hellitavalt "väikesteks pruunideks olevusteks" või mõnikord ka "väikesteks Jumala olevusteks"," kirjutab Lee Durrell raamatu saatesõnas. Loodame, et selleks ajaks, kui teie seda loete, on inimkond õppinud vähemalt mingil määral taltsutama oma hoolimatut ahnust ja rumalust. Kui mitte, on vähemalt osa meist proovinud seda teha ... Loodame, et öösel valgustavad teiegi teed jaanimardikad ja jaaniussid, et hekkides ja metsades tervitavad teid liblikad. Loodame, et teie koidikutesse toob rõõmu lindude lauluorkester ning teie silmi ja kõrvu paitavad linnutiibade pimestav värviküllus ja sahin. Loodame, et ikka veel jagavad teiega planeeti Maa erakordsed olendid, kes rikastavad teie elu, nii nagu nad on rikastanud meie oma. - Gerald Durrell, "Ajakapsel"

‘Living in Corfu was rather like living in one of the more flamboyant and slapstick comic operas’It is 1935 and the Durrells have escaped the leaden summer skies of Bournemouth to arrive ‘like a troupe of medieval tumblers’ on the sun-drenched island of Corfu for a new life. Gerald Durrell’s beloved portrayal of his chaotic family – beatific Mother, Roger the dog, diet-obsessed Margo, book-loving Lawrence and gun-wielding Leslie – as well as his own adventures with a burgeoning menagerie of beasts, birds and insects (including an owl called Ulysses), is a timeless account of an idyllic childhood and an uproarious portrait of the English abroad.