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FREE GERALD DURRELL: THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY PDF Douglas Botting | 672 pages | 20 Mar 2000 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780006387305 | English | London, United Kingdom Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Gerald Durrell by Douglas Botting. Written with complete access to the Durrell family archives and Gerald Durrell's private papers, this affecting biography follows its subject from an eccentric boyhood in Imperial India to the international prominence he gained in print and on television as one of the world's foremost animal conservationists. The younger brother of the famous novelist Lawrence Durrell, Ger Written with complete access to the Durrell family archives and Gerald Durrell's private papers, this affecting biography follows its subject from an eccentric boyhood in Imperial India to the Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography prominence he gained in print and on television as one of the world's foremost animal conservationists. The younger brother of the famous novelist Lawrence Durrell, Gerald always viewed his own writing - which includes thirty-seven bestsellers, among them enduringly popular classics like My Family and Other Animals and A Zoo in My Luggage - as the means of financing his greatest passion: breeding animals in danger of extinction and returning them to the wild. In Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography s, with the production of a dozen different television documentary series on zoology, most notably the widely Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography Catch Me a Colobus and Ark on the Move, Durrell's conservationist vision reached audiences around Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography globe, while the zoo he founded on the island of Jersey realized his pioneering mission to breed endangered species in captivity. It stands as a living legacy of the much-admired Gerald Durrell, who died in at the age of seventy. Rich material for a biography. Botting does an excellent job of giving us Durrell the man, not merely the legend. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Original Title. Gerald Durrell. Jersey Zoo Jersey. Other Editions 5. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Gerald Durrellplease sign up. The tv series ends with Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography mother not marrying Sven. Did his mother ever remarry? Vivienne Oh, and I was his publicist for a while. No Liz, she did not marry again. See 2 questions about Gerald Durrell…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Sep 29, Joan rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Durrell admirers only. Shelves: adventureanimalsbio-and-autobiographyadult-booksenviromentalnonfictionread-inscience-nonfiction. This book was far too long. However, I so admire Gerald Durrell I stuck with it. I'd say the first half was mostly based on Durrell's own books and the second half was still substantially based on his books. However, once he started to age and develop poor health, more of it was based on interviews or unpublished manuscripts. That part was more interesting since it covered information I didn't already know. While it Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography it clearer, I knew he was likely a high functioning alcoholic. It was sweet This book was far too long. It was sweet to read how madly in love he was with Lee and how she finally realized she was in love with him. Ultimately the book was about his life's dream to do what he could to preserve animals and plants from extinction. His trust is ranked among the top tier in the world, right up there with our own San Diego Zoo. If you are curious about Gerald Durrell, do not start with this book. This biography is for someone who already knows who he is and is fascinated by him. Start with Durrell's own books. If you already know of Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography admire Durrell, then this would be a good place to continue learning about him. Or, better still, join his trust now called Durrell Conservation Wildlife Trust. View 2 comments. Apr Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography, Gaelan rated it really Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography it. When I was a boy, Gerald Durrell was one of my heroes. To some extent, now that I am a man, he still is. Douglas Botting writes about Gerald Durrell in a way that allows the reader know that Durrell was a flawed man. A great man, but flawed. A drinker, something of a trial as a husband, generally not a man who lead an examined life. But Botting looks at Durrell's life through a kind, and almost affectionate lens, and he writes in such a way that Durrell's flaws don't detract from his accomplishm When I was a boy, Gerald Durrell was one of my Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography. But Botting looks at Durrell's life through a kind, and almost affectionate lens, and he writes in such a way that Durrell's flaws don't detract from his accomplishments. I'm not generally good at reading biographies; I tire of their one-thing-after-another linearity. That's one reason I didn't finish this book the first time I read it, soon after it came out in The other reason is that I didn't have the emotional maturity to deal with the fact that my childhood idol was a depressed alcoholic. Not because I was disappointed in him toppling off a pedestal, but because I loved him so much and couldn't stand the thought of him being in so much pain. If course, I'm not generally good at reading biographies; I tire of their one-thing-after-another linearity. If course, anyone with any sense would realize that depressive alcoholism is a perfectly sensible state for a person in the conservation business, but I didn't have a lot of sense and had fully bought into Durrell's jolly television persona. Enough about me. This is a long biography, but Durrell jammed a lot of living into his life: an unorthodox childhood, daring expeditions to faraway lands, delightful animals and people, the challenge of founding an institution and a whole new way of doing conservation, two marriages, and gallons of alcohol. Botting who died this February had fantastic access to Durrell's letters, diaries and unpublished works as well as Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography from others and intimate interviews with people who knew Gerry his whole life. As such this is a rich and insightful look into a complicated man. I'm glad I tackled it again. A very thorough and detailed biography of one of the great naturalists of our time. Well written Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography that I sometimes felt that the author was such a big fan of Durrell that he lost a certain amount of objectivity and therefore balance in his assessment of the man. Durrell had a fascinating life and left an invaluable legacy in the field of environmental sustainability. Of the world of animals he said 'they are so much more straightforward and honest than people. They have no sort of preten A very thorough and detailed biography of one of the great naturalists of our time. They have no sort of pretensions. They don't Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography they are God. They don't pretend they are intelligent, they don't invent nerve gas and, above all, they don't go to cocktail parties. Douglas Botting deserves a prolonged salute for the quality of his research as much as his well-rounded picture of the highly complex man who founded Jersey Zoo on the back of his love of animals, Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography and insects. And Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography some of them. This fascinating book fills in the spaces between Gerald Durrell's own stories, his brother Lawrence Durrell's, and other, somewhat disapproving zoo directors the world over during his lifetime. Most zoos did not approach Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography the way Gerald did: Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography a chi Douglas Botting deserves a prolonged salute for the quality of his research as much as his well-rounded picture of the highly complex man who founded Jersey Zoo on the back of his love of animals, birds and insects. Most zoos did not approach fauna the way Gerald did: with a childlike enthusiasm yet with foresight on how quickly so many species were becoming extinct. It gave him a special mission. He took fauna back alive, whenever he could, and bred them in conditions that were not dissimilar to their home habitat. The mating season could be mayhem at the Jersey Zoo! The behaviour of humans, however, depressed him enormously over the years and led to periods of depression and hopelessness. Even Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography, there is much that is joyful in this book, which not only deals with Gerald within the context of his close family, and two wives, but also the specimens, the travellers met and ofttimes endured during his peripatetic travels to find and save animals, birds and insects on the verge of extinction. Some of the tales in this biography are hair-raising, some droll. If his aim was to breed fauna that were almost extinct, and then to take their progeny back to restock the places from whence they came, it did not always happen as planned.