Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography
By (Author) Douglas Botting
HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins
31st May 2000
20th March 2000
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Biography: general
Wildlife: general interest
590.92
Short-listed for BP Natural World Book Prize 1999
Paperback
672
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 45mm
510g
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."
Douglas Bottings biography of Gavin Maxwell was hugely praised and is still in print as a HarperCollins paperback. His previous books reflect his interest in travel, exploration and wild places. He was an exploration filmmaker for the BBCs World About Us and became a full-time writer with the publication of his highly praised biography of the German explorer-naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, Humboldt and the Cosmos. His biography of Gerald Durrell, published in March 1999, was highly praised.