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Gerald Malcolm Durrell (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British India, and moved to England when his father died in 1928. In 1935 the family moved to Corfu, and stayed there for four years, before the outbreak of World War II forced them to return to the UK. In 1946 he received an inheritance from his father's will that he used to fund animal-collecting trips to the British Cameroons and British Guiana. He married Jacquie Durrell in 1951; they had very little money, and she persuaded him to write an account of his first trip to the Cameroons. The result, titled The Overloaded Ark, sold well, and he began writing accounts of his other trips. An expedition to Argentina and Paraguay followed in 1953, and three years later he published My Family and Other Animals, which became a bestseller.
In the late 1950s Durrell decided to found his own zoo. He finally found a suitable site on the island of Jersey, and leased the property in late 1959. He envisaged the Jersey Zoo as an institution for the study of animals and for captive breeding, rather than a showcase for the public. In 1963 control of the zoo was turned over to the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. The zoo repeatedly came close to bankruptcy over the next few years, and Durrell raised money for it by his writing and by fundraising appeals. To guarantee the zoo's future, Durrell launched a successful appeal in 1970 for funds to purchase the property.
Durrell was an Alcoholism. In 1976 he separated from his wife; they were divorced in 1979, and Durrell remarried, to Lee McGeorge, an American zoologist. He and Lee made several television documentaries in the 1980s, including Durrell in Russia and Ark on the Move. They co-authored The Amateur Naturalist, which was intended for amateurs who wanted to know more about the natural history of the world around them, though it also had sections about each of the world's major ecosystems. This book became his most successful, selling well over a million copies; a television series was made from it.
Durrell became an OBE in 1982. In 1984 he founded the Durrell Conservation Academy, to train conservationists in the practice of captive breeding. The institution has been very influential: its thousands of graduates included a director of London Zoo, an organisation which was once opposed to Durrell's work. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and cirrhosis in 1994, and received a liver transplant, but died the following January. He was cremated, and his ashes divided between Corfu and Jersey Zoo.
When Durrell was fourteen months old, the family left Jamshedpur and sailed to Britain, where his father bought a house in Dulwich, in south London, near where both the older boys were at school. They returned to India in late 1926 or early 1927, settling in Lahore, where Lawrence had contract work.Botting (1999), pp. 8–9. It was in Lahore that Gerald's fascination with animals began, first when he saw two large entwined in a ditch, and later when he visited the Lahore Zoo. He was entranced by the zoo, later recalling "The zoo was in fact very tiny and the cages minuscule and probably never cleaned out, and certainly if I saw the zoo today I would be the first to have it closed down, but as a child it was a magic place. Having been there once, nothing could keep me away."Botting (1999), pp. 9–10. The Durrells also briefly owned a pair of Himalayan bear cubs, given to them by Louisa's brother John, a hunter. Louisa soon decided they were too dangerous, and gave them to the zoo.Botting (1999), p. 11.
Durrell's father fell ill in early 1928, and died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 16 April. Louisa was devastated by his death, but Gerald was scarcely affected, having been much closer to his mother and his ayah than his father, who had often been absent as his work had taken him all over British India.Botting (1999), pp. 11–13. Louisa considered keeping the family in India, but finally decided to move back to the UK, and they sailed back from Mumbai.Botting (1999), p. 13. The house in Dulwich that Lawrence had bought in 1926 was large and expensive to run, and in 1930 Louisa moved the family to a flat attached to the Queen's Hotel in Upper Norwood, also in south London.Botting (1999), p. 15. Early the following year they moved to Parkstone, near Bournemouth.Botting (1999), pp. 17–18. Louisa was lonely with just Gerald for company; the other three children were at school or studying elsewhere. Durrell later recalled that she began "resorting to the bottle more and more frequently" and eventually had "what in those days was called a 'nervous breakdown. He was left alone in the house except for a governess, brought in until Louisa returned, at which point he was sent to a kindergarten nearby instead. He enjoyed his time there, particularly because one of the teachers encouraged his interest in natural history, bringing in an aquarium with goldfish and pond snails.Botting (1999), pp. 18–20.
In 1932 Louisa moved them again, to a smaller house in Bournemouth, and the following year she enrolled him at Wychwood School. Gerald loathed the school; the only lessons he enjoyed were in natural history. He would scream and struggle to avoid going. When he was nine he was Spanking by his headmaster, and his mother took him away from the school.Haag (2017), pp. 46–48. She bought him a dog, which he named Roger, as compensation for his traumatic time there.Botting (1999), pp. 20–22. He never received any further formal education, though he intermittently had tutors.Botting (1999), pp. 56–58.
Lawrence and Nancy moved into a house in , near the Wilkinsons, and the rest of the family stayed in the Pension Suisse in Corfu Town for a few days, house-hunting. They met Spiro Chalikiopoulos, who found them a villa near Lawrence and Nancy, and became a close family friend.Botting (1999), pp. 32–35. Gerald fell in love with Corfu as soon as they moved out of the town, and spent his days exploring, with a butterfly net and empty matchboxes in which to bring home his finds.Botting (1999), pp. 40–41. Louisa soon decided he needed to continue his education, and hired George to tutor him in the mornings, but Gerald was a poor student.Botting (1999), pp. 42–43.
George was friends with Theodore Stephanides, a Polymath Greek–British doctor and scientist, whom he introduced to Gerald.Botting (1999), pp. 44–48. Stephanides spent a half-day every week with Gerald, walking in the countryside and talking to him about natural history, among many other topics. He was enormously influential on Gerald, and helped to encourage and systematise Gerald's love of the natural world.Botting (1999), pp. 47–49. Gerald collected animals of all kinds, keeping them in the villa in whatever containers he could find, sometimes causing an uproar in the family when they discovered water snakes in the bath or scorpions in matchboxes.Botting (1999), pp. 53–55. Stephanides's daughter, Alexia, who was a little younger than Gerald, became his closest friend,Haag (2017), p. 89.Botting (1999), p. 70. and the families of each hoped that the two would one day marry.Haag (15 April 2017)Haag (2017), pp. 101–102.
In late 1935 the family moved to a villa near Kontokali, not far north of Corfu town.Haag (2017), p. 91. Gerald's education continued to be haphazard, with tutors who were unable to interest him. Lawrence encouraged Gerald to read widely, giving him an eclectic selection of books, from the unexpurgated version of Lady Chatterley's Lover to Charles Darwin. Among the books were Jean-Henri Fabre's Insect Life and The Life and Love of the Insects, which Gerald found entrancing; naturalists such as Fabre, Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Gilbert White became his heroes.Durrell (1973), p. ix. Equally influential was a copy of Wide World, an adventure magazine, which Leslie lent him: it contained an account of an animal-collecting expedition to the Cameroons, in west Africa, led by Percy Sladen, and gave Gerald the ambition of someday doing the same. Leslie and Lawrence each owned boats, and Gerald was given a small rowing boat as a birthday present. It was christened the Bootle-Bumtrinket, and Gerald added trips along the coast to his excursions through the countryside.Botting (1999), pp. 62–64.
Late in 1937 the family moved again, this time to a villa overlooking Halikiopoulou Lagoon that had been built as a residence for the British governor of the Ionian Islands.Botting (1999), pp. 68, 108–109. Stephanides left the island for a job in Cyprus in early 1938, though his wife and daughter stayed in Corfu, and Margaret returned to England the following year. In mid-1939, with war looking increasingly likely, Louisa was warned by her London bank that if she did not return to England she would have no access to her funds if hostilities broke out. Louisa, Leslie, Gerald, and Maria Condos, the family's maid, left Corfu for England in June. Margaret briefly returned; Lawrence and Nancy waited to leave until after war was declared, and Margaret finally left after Christmas.Botting (1999), pp. 69–72.
Durrell's call-up for the war came in late 1942, but he was exempted from military duty on medical grounds.Botting (1999), pp. 84–87. His exemption letter told him that his options were to work in a munitions factory or find work on a farm; he chose the latter, but instead worked at a riding school at Longham, near Bournemouth, having persuaded the owner to tell the authorities he was doing farmwork if asked. He spent the rest of the war mucking out and grooming the horses, giving riding lessons, and occasionally having brief affairs with women he was teaching to ride.Botting (1999), pp. 87–88.
After the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Durrell decided that if he were ever to achieve his dream of owning a zoo, he had to gain more experience working with animals. He applied to the Zoological Society of London, and was invited to the zoo to meet the superintendent, Geoffrey Vevers. At the interview, Durrell "prattled on interminably about animals, animal collecting and my own zoo", as Durrell later put it, and Vevers wrote to him a few weeks later offering him a position as a student keeper at Whipsnade Zoo. He began work there on 30 July.Botting (1999), pp. 88–89. He was transferred periodically between areas of the zoo, and spent much of his time cleaning the animals' cages, but occasionally had more interesting tasks, such as helping to hand-rear four newborn Père David's deer. The work could be dangerous: he was asked at one point to separate an African buffalo calf from its mother, and on another occasion to cage an aggressive brindled gnu, and broke some bones in his hand during one of these tasks.Botting (1999), pp. 92–95, 98–99.Durrell (1976), pp. 106–108, 138–140. Durrell continued his reading while at Whipsnade, now concentrating on learning more about zoos. The extinctions of animals such as the dodo, the passenger pigeon and the quagga appalled him, and he realised that most zoos considered their role to be as exhibitors of animals, and did not think of themselves as scientific institutions which might help address the problems of endangered species.Botting (1999), pp. 92–93. He was also disappointed by the weak scientific knowledge of Whipsnade's staff. Some of the keepers knew less than they claimed about their animals, and were often unwilling to pass on what they did know. An exception was another newly hired keeper, Ken Smith, who was responsible for the Père David's deer. Smith and Durrell established a friendship that lasted long after Durrell left Whipsnade.Botting (1999), p. 99. Durrell had good friends among the female keepers, and some romances, including one woman whom he took to Bournemouth to meet his family a couple of times.Botting (1999), pp. 96–98.
On Durrell's twenty-first birthday, in January 1946, he inherited £3,000 (equivalent to £ in ) that had been set aside for him in his father's will. His long-term goal was to collect animals and start a zoo, and he wrote letters to animal collectors, offering to pay his own expenses if he could join their expeditions. All turned him down because of his lack of experience. Eventually he decided to use his inheritance to fund an expedition of his own, which would give him the experience he needed to be hired by the established collectors.Botting (1999), pp. 99–100. He left Whipsnade in May and returned to Bournemouth to plan his first expedition.Botting (1999), pp. 101–102.
In July, as they began making arrangements to return, Durrell realised they did not have enough money. He wired home for a loan; Leslie's girlfriend, Doris Hall, sent £250 (equivalent to £ in ) immediately. Durrell came down with malaria just before the return home. He was told by a doctor that he would die if he insisted on travelling to the coast and boarding the ship, rather than resting. Durrell ignored the advice, and sailed from Tiko with the animals on 25 July, recovering on the voyage. They arrived in Liverpool on 10 August, with nearly two hundred animals, which were dispersed to various English zoos.Botting (1999), pp. 138–139.
They again ran out of money, and had to wire home for a loan (again arranged via Leslie), though they hoped that selling the collection in England on their return would at least recoup their expenditures.Botting (1999), pp. 162, 168. They knew that obtaining one of the high-value animals would resolve their financial problems, so Durrell canoed downriver to Asagem, where there was a hippo herd. It was considered impossible to capture a hippo calf without killing the parents, as hippos are very dangerous animals, so Durrell shot both the bull and cow. A crocodile killed the hippo calf almost immediately, before it could be captured. Durrell did not have a permit to kill any further hippos, and was deeply distressed by having had to kill two animals at all, let alone in a failed attempt to obtain their calf.Botting (1999), pp. 162–168. A promise of a young gorilla persuaded Durrell and Smith to stay in Mamfe past their intended departure date, but it never appeared. Durrell was forced to sell equipment, including guns, to raise money, and eventually they left Tiko in early August. Most of the animals survived the journey, but the last flying squirrel died just one day from docking at Liverpool on 25 August.Botting (1999), pp. 168–171.
Despite the failure to obtain the more valuable animals, the expedition had brought back several species never previously seen in Britain, including a hairy frog, and had turned a small profit. Reporters from most of the British papers came on board the ship to interview them when they docked at Liverpool, and Durrell told them that he and Smith had already begun planning another trip, this time to South America.Botting (1999), pp. 171–173.
Once the animals had all been sold, Durrell went back to Bournemouth, but wrote frequent letters and telegrams to her. Jacquie's father objected to the relationship, since Durrell appeared to have no money and no prospects. In addition, Durrell was fond of whisky: alcohol had killed Jacquie's paternal grandfather.Hughes (1997), p. 117. Durrell visited Manchester again to talk to Jacquie's father, and to her surprise the meeting was amicable, with Durrell receiving permission to see more of Jacquie. Jacquie continued to spend time with Durrell, partly, she later said, to annoy her father, but she soon found herself deeply emotionally involved with Durrell.Botting (1999), pp. 181–183.
The expedition to British Guiana had left Durrell with only about £200 (equivalent to £ in ). He had to get a job, but the only jobs he was suited for were in zoos, and his chances of obtaining one were damaged by George Cansdale, the superintendent of London Zoo. Cansdale deeply disliked Durrell: Jacquie later said it was because Cansdale regarded himself as the main expert on West African animals and was offended at Gerald intruding on what he regarded as his territory. Durrell had also criticised London Zoo for its policy of showcasing as many animals as possible, rather than prioritising scientific research. Cansdale sent a letter to British zoos criticising Durrell's animal care and competence. After multiple unsuccessful job applications, Durrell finally took a short-term post at Belle Vue Zoo in late 1950, staying at Jacquie's parents' hotel.Botting (1999), pp. 184–185. When Jacquie reached 21, in 1950,Durrell, J. (1967), p. 178. she was free to marry without her parents' permission.Botting (1999), pp. 187–189. After months of indecision, she agreed to the marriage, and the two eloped in February 1951, marrying on 26 February in Bournemouth. Her family never forgave her, and she never saw any of them again.
Late that year they heard from the BBC that the script had been accepted, and on 9 December 1951 Durrell read the talk live on the Home Service.Botting (1999), p. 197. The fee was fifteen guineas (equivalent to £ in ), and Durrell produced more fifteen-minute talks but had also now decided that it might be worth writing a book. Louisa gave him an allowance of £3 per week (equivalent to £ in ) to sustain him and Jacquie while he worked. Durrell decided to write an account of his first trip to the Cameroons, and quickly realised that he did not want to simply relate the events of the trip chronologically; he wanted to make the animals central characters, and to make the book entertaining and humorous rather than simply factual.Botting (1999), pp. 197–199. The completed typescript, titled The Overloaded Ark, was posted to Faber & Faber with a covering letter mentioning that Gerald was Lawrence's brother. Durrell continued to apply for jobs while waiting for a response, but without success. Faber & Faber responded after six weeks, asking Durrell to visit them in London to discuss the book. He let them know that he could not afford the train fare, and they wrote again offering £25 (equivalent to £ in ), and another £25 on publication. Durrell accepted.Botting (1999), p. 201.
Lawrence had advised Gerald not to bother with an agent, but Gerald felt an agent would have obtained a higher payment from Faber & Faber, and contacted Spencer Curtis Brown, Lawrence's own agent, in late 1952. Curtis Brown read a galley proof of The Overloaded Ark and asked Durrell to come to London to meet with them, and again he had to phone them to explain that he could not afford the fare. They immediately offered to pay his expenses, and sent £120 (equivalent to £ in ).Botting (1999), pp. 200–201. Jacquie later commented that "this was the first time that anyone had given us concrete evidence of their faith in Gerry's abilities".Durrell, J. (1967), p. 25. Gerald and Jacquie both visited Curtis Brown, who offered to try to sell the American rights. Shortly after the Durrells returned to Bournemouth they received a telegram saying the rights had been sold for £500 (equivalent to £ in ).Botting (1999), p. 202.
Durrell soon began work on a book about the expedition to British Guiana, titled Three Singles to Adventure. It was completed in only six weeks, and sold to Rupert Hart-Davis, a London publisher. After a short break Durrell began on a third book, The Bafut Beagles, about his second trip to the Cameroons. The Overloaded Ark was published on 31 July 1953, to favourable reviews in both Britain and the US. The only exceptions were a couple of reviewers from the animal business in the UK, who considered the book lightweight, and no competition for Cecil Webb's autobiography. The book's dialogue used pidgin and one or two reviews suggested that this could be seen as offensive. Some reviews questioned whether zoos, and animal collecting, were ethical. Durrell himself was strongly critical of how zoos were run at the time, but kept his views out of his early books.Botting (1999), pp. 204–207.
The Durrells arrived in London in July, and the few animals they had been able to bring with them were quickly placed with zoos, but the money from The Overloaded Ark had been spent on the expedition with little return. Three Singles to Adventure had been published while they were in South America: the reviews were mostly positive, but Cansdale, who had been annoyed by criticism of London Zoo in The Overloaded Ark, wrote a scornful review in The Daily Telegraph, describing the book as superficial, hastily written, and uninformative, and Durrell as an incompetent who was lucky to have survived the expedition.Botting (1999), pp. 214–215.Cansdale (1954), p. 8.
The Bafut Beagles was released on 15 October 1954, and it was made Book of the Month by World Books, a book club; this guaranteed substantial sales, and Hart-Davis celebrated with a dinner in Durrell's honour at the Savoy Hotel. In November Durrell gave a sold-out lecture at the Royal Festival Hall, illustrating the talk with ex tempore cartoon drawings, and showing film of the capture of an anaconda from the Guiana trip.Botting (1999), pp. 217–218. Reviews for The Bafut Beagles were ecstatic, and it became a best-seller and the first printing rapidly sold out. It was widely considered Durrell's best book to date.Botting (1999), pp. 218–219. Some reviewers commented that the book was not suitable for all audiences; there were plenty of references to the animals' lavatory and sexual habits, and to drinking alcohol. The review in The Spectator commented that there were no moral judgements about animal collecting, or about colonialism: "He attempts no explanations ...he passes no moral judgements; he is absorbed wholly in particulars... he no recipes for the future of the dark continent".Botting (1999), pp. 219–220.
In 1955 Gerald and Jacquie visited Lawrence in Cyprus for two months, planning to make two films for television; Gerald had considered Cyprus as a possible location for the zoo he wanted to establish one day. While they were in Nicosia a terrorist campaign against the British by EOKA began, with bombs exploding all over the city. The plans for a zoo and the films were abandoned, though the Durrells did make a film about a Cypriot village while they were there.Botting (1999), pp. 223–224. In June, Gerald and Jacquie returned to the UK and rented a flat in Woodside Park, in north London. Durrell developed jaundice, and while ill he decided to write a book about his childhood in Corfu.Botting (1999), pp. 225–226.
Durrell was exhausted by the time the book was completed, and went with Jacquie to the Scilly Isles for two weeks to relax and recover. His family read the manuscript, and were "more bemused than amused", in the words of Durrell's biographer. Durrell had taken liberties with chronology, but claimed that every incident in the book was completely true, though Margaret and Louisa thought otherwise. Louisa commented that "The awful thing about Gerald's book is that I'm beginning to believe it is all true, when it isn't." Lawrence disagreed, saying that it was a "rather truthful book—the best argument I know for keeping thirteen-year-olds at boarding-schools and not letting them hang about the house listening in to conversations of their elders and betters".Botting (1999), pp. 229–230. There were, however, some obvious changes that Gerald had made: for example, he had portrayed Lawrence as staying with the rest of the family, instead of living elsewhere with Nancy, who was not even mentioned in the book.Botting (1999), p. 231. My Family and Other Animals was published in October 1956—the title had been suggested by Curtis Brown's son-in-law—and drew enthusiastic reviews describing it as "bewitching", "joyous", and "uproarious".Botting (1999), pp. 229, 241–242. It immediately became a bestseller, going into a third printing before it had even been published.
In late December 1956 the Durrells boarded the SS Tortugeiro in Southampton, accompanied by Sophie Cook and Robert Golding, a young naturalist.Botting (1999), pp. 236, 243. The British government officials in the Cameroons were hostile and uncooperative: they considered Durrell had portrayed the Fon in The Bafut Beagles as "a carousing black clown who spoke comic pidgin English", in Jacquie's words, and the Durrells had trouble getting their equipment through customs. Eventually they reached Mamfe, and discovered that it would be impossible to collect any gorillas—aside from the difficulty of getting a licence, there were so few gorillas left in the area that Durrell decided it would be wrong to capture one.Botting (1999), pp. 244–245. They did obtain permission to film them, but Durrell became ill, both physically and mentally. He had to be hospitalised because of injuries to his feet, and he became depressed and started drinking heavily.Botting (1999), pp. 246–247.
Jacquie suggested to Gerald that instead of selling the animals they were collecting, they should keep the collection and "use it to blackmail the Bournemouth Council into giving us a suitable zoo site in the town", and Durrell agreed.Botting (1999), pp. 247–250. He remained depressed at the changes in the Cameroons since he had first visited, even when they finally reached Bafut and met the Fon again. Durrell continued to drink heavily. He came down with malaria; and then he and Jacquie both caught a blood disease. By May they had hundreds of animals collected, including , cobras, eagles, , a chevrotain, and a baby chimpanzee. They left Bafut in June 1957.
The animals were established in the garden and garage of Margaret's house in Bournemouth,Botting (1999), pp. 251–252. with some housed at Paignton Zoo, where Ken Smith was the superintendent.Botting (1999), pp. 252, 255. Bournemouth town council was initially interested in the idea of a zoo, but eventually decided against it. The town council of Poole, near Bournemouth, offered Upton House, near Poole Harbour, as a possible site. That Christmas some of the animals were housed in a local department store, J. J. Allen, as "Durrell's Menagerie". Eventually Poole council provided a draft contract, which proved unacceptable: it would have required Durrell to commit £10,000 (equivalent to £ in ), most of which would have been spent on repairs to the property, rather than on building the zoo enclosures and services.Botting (1999), pp. 254–258.
The film they had shot in the Cameroons was used as the basis for a three-part television series, To Bafut for Beef, in early 1958. Durrell was visibly nervous in the studio sequences, and the reviews were mixed.Botting (1999), pp. 261–262. While Durrell had been in the Cameroons in early 1957, the BBC had broadcast a six-part series of talks by Durrell, called Encounters with Animals. It had been very popular, and the BBC commissioned another six talks, titled Animal Attitudes, which were broadcast in 1958. Durrell had not yet written a book about the most recent Cameroons trip, but was under contract to deliver a book by the end of the year.Botting (1999), pp. 259–260. Jacquie suggested compiling the talks into a book, a much easier task than writing a new book, and the result, also titled Encounters with Animals, was turned in to Rupert Hart-Davis where it was copyedited by David Hughes, who became a family friend.Hughes (1997), pp. 7–21.
It took a month to get the expedition's equipment through customs, but eventually they were able to drive to Patagonia, where they filmed , , and . Jacquie had been injured in a traffic accident, and had apparently recovered, but it seemed possible she had fractured her skull, and when they returned to Buenos Aires in February 1959 she took ship for England.Botting (1999), pp. 268–269. After she had gone Durrell went to Calilegua, in Jujuy Province, and brought the animals collected there back to Buenos Aires by train. These included a Geoffroy's cat, , Peccary, a Cougar, , and yellow-necked macaws.Botting (1999), pp. 269–270. After another short excursion to Mendoza, in search of , Durrell returned to Buenos Aires, where he met David Attenborough, who at that time was a producer for the BBC, and had been filming and collecting in Paraguay. Durrell described his plans for the zoo to Attenborough, who thought it could not succeed; Durrell assured him that he would be able to support it with the royalties from his books.Botting (1999), pp. 271–274.
Durrell had still not completed the book about the third Cameroons expedition, and again Jacquie found it very difficult to get him to finish writing it. It was published in 1960 as A Zoo in My Luggage to good reviews and became one of his most popular books.Botting (1999), pp. 287–288. The zoo of the title was operational, but in constant financial trouble: equipment was makeshift, staff were underpaid, and after a year the staff were called to a meeting and told that bankruptcy was possible. They responded with cost-saving ideas, and the zoo survived, but the financial problems persisted for years.Botting (1999), p. 289. Durrell drew no salary, and obtained a loan for £20,000 (equivalent to £ in ) as capital for the zoo, and in 1960 and 1961 took on several more writing projects to bring in money. An account of the trip to Argentina, The Whispering Land, was accompanied by two children's books, Island Zoo and Look at Zoos, along with articles and broadcast appearances.Botting (1999), pp. 292–293. In May 1960, in the midst of these projects, the Durrells took a six-week break on Corfu, revisiting the scenes of Gerald's childhood, with Louisa accompanying them on the trip. Durrell was relieved to find the island much less changed than he had feared.Botting (1999), pp. 294–295. The limited footage shot in Argentina could not support the programme series that Durrell had hoped for, but one programme was made from it in 1961, and the BBC commissioned another series, called Zoo Packet, the same summer.Botting (1999), p. 297.
In 1962 Durrell and the BBC collaborated on an expedition with the goal of a television series that focused on conservation issues. The itinerary took them to New Zealand, Australia, and finally Malaya; a planned trip to East Africa was cancelled at the last minute. On their return, they found the zoo on the verge of financial collapse.Botting (1999), pp. 301–306. A financial manager was hired and given complete control of the budget, but more was needed. An appeal was launched, in conjunction with a plan to give control of the zoo to a trust. Donations came in, and Durrell continued writing: Menagerie Manor was an account of the first four years of the zoo's existence, and he also worked on the scripts for Two in the Bush, the BBC series based on the 1962 trip.Botting (1999), pp. 307–312. In July 1963, the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust was created and given ownership of the zoo; Durrell remained in control, as director of the trust.Botting (1999), p. 313.
Both Gerald and Jacquie now began writing: Gerald turned the television series Two in the Bush into a book of the same name, and Jacquie wrote a humorous account of her life with Gerald, titled Beasts in My Bed.Botting (1999), p. 329. Gerald followed this with his first fiction book, a story for children called The Donkey Rustlers. The Durrells spent mid-1966 in Corfu. While they were there, Two in the Bush was published in the UK, once again to positive reviews. They returned to Jersey in September, and then took a two-year lease on the Mazet, a house Lawrence owned near Nîmes in the south of France.Botting (1999), pp. 330–333. That winter, the zoo was again in desperate financial trouble: Durrell was able to persuade the bank not to foreclose on the property, and Lord Jersey, a local aristocrat, covered the staff's wages for a few months to tide them over to the spring.Botting (1999), p. 334. In early 1967 Durrell was featured in an episode of the BBC's series Animal People. He turned the manuscript of Rosy is My Relative, his first novel, in to his publishers, and went to Corfu again for the summer. The BBC filmed The Garden of the Gods, a documentary about Durrell's childhood, while they were there.Botting (1999), pp. 335–337.
During the trip Durrell dictated a sequel to My Family and Other Animals, titled Birds, Beasts, and Relatives, and it was published in 1969; once again the reviews were glowing.Botting (1999), pp. 341–342. In late 1968 he and Jacquie visited Corfu again. Durrell worked on a script for a film of My Family and Other Animals, the film rights to which had been acquired by Albert Finney and Michael Medwin, but the film was never made.Botting (1999), pp. 344–345. While there, he drank even more than usual, and the stress on his marriage increased. Jacquie later told a friend, "He becomes quite intolerable from the moment he sets foot on the quay, and realises it will never be what it was... That's why I loathe Corfu—for what it does to him now."Hughes (1997), p. 72. He was by turns depressed and angry. They returned to Jersey, and in early 1969, on medical advice he was admitted to The Priory, a clinic in Roehampton, for three weeks.Botting (1999), pp. 348–349. There he was diagnosed as an alcoholicHughes (1997), p. 140. and put on a course of tranquillisers, but kept drinking, as his visitors often brought him alcohol, which the clinic did not forbid.Botting (1999), pp. 349–350. He was still on the tranquillisers when released, and returned to Corfu in April to rest further, finally coming back to Jersey in July.Botting (1999), p. 351. Financially the news was better: film rights to Durrell's novel Rosy is My Relative sold for £25,000 (equivalent to £ in ), which wiped out all of Durrell's debts.Botting (1999), p. 350.
In August the Durrells left for Australia. They arranged a trip to the Great Barrier Reef, with no animal collecting planned. Although ostensibly the trip was to learn about conservation activities on the reef and in Australia, it was also intended to give Durrell a long recovery period—they travelled by sea in both directions, and were away for nine months with few obligations and no contact with the day-to-day running of the Trust and the zoo. Time spent snorkelling on the reef was followed by a trip across northern Australia, and they eventually returned home in early 1970, reaching Jersey in May.Botting (1999), pp. 352–355. Durrell's mental health improved over the trip and the following year: he gave up whisky and cigarettes and began practising yoga.Botting (1999), p. 356. A grand mal seizure while in France led to advice from a French doctor to limit his alcohol intake to no more than half a bottle of red wine a day; this was a dramatic reduction, but Durrell followed the advice, lost some weight, and in October Jacquie told Lawrence that "all the tensions and general woes have gone and he is now like his old self".Botting (1999), p. 361.
On 30 April 1972 a new gorilla breeding complex was opened in Jersey, and the next day the first World Conference on Breeding Endangered Species in Captivity was held there. The conference was successful and generated publicity both for the Trust and the cause of captive breeding.Botting (1999), pp. 371–373. Princess Anne, who was a fan of Durrell's books, visited the zoo that summer, and by August had agreed to be the Trust's patron.Botting (1999), pp. 375–376. At the end of the year the trustees made an attempt to replace Durrell as the administrator of the zoo, since he was rarely there: they argued that the zoo and Trust needed a full-time manager who was onsite. Durrell was furious, and eventually outmanoeuvred the trustees, all (or almost all) of whom resigned.Botting (1999), pp. 376–382. In 1973 Durrell visited the US on a three-month fundraising tour, and while there arranged the creation of the Wildlife Preservation Trust International (WPTI), an organisation intended to funnel American donations to the Trust.Botting (1999), pp. 387–390. The following year the Durrells visited Grace Kelly in Monaco, and persuaded her to act as the patron of the WPTI.Botting (1999), pp. 391–392.
Durrell spent part of 1975 writing a treatment for a screenplay of Tarka the Otter; the film was made in 1979, with Durrell sharing screenplay credits.Botting (1999), p. 396.Monaco (1991), p. 545. He had also been working on a book about the zoo, to be titled The Stationary Ark, and in May 1975 filming began in Jersey for a Canadian TV series based on the book.Botting (1999), pp. 396–397. At the end of the year, Jacquie decided on a separation; she left Gerald, who fell into a depression and was taken to a private nursing home by a friend. After three months, Jacquie returned to Jersey to clear out her possessions and make the separation permanent.Botting (1999), pp. 402–408. During the separation she had suggested that Gerald visit Mauritius, on a fact-finding trip, and despite the breakdown of his marriage, he left as planned in March, visiting Mauritius, Round Island, and Rodrigues, and returning to Jersey in May 1976.Botting (1999), pp. 408–412. The divorce proceedings were protracted and bitter.Botting (1999), pp. 412–413. Durrell continued writing: The Stationary Ark had not sold well, but his next two books, Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons, about Mauritius, and The Garden of the Gods, the third and final book about his childhood in Corfu, did better.Botting (1999), p. 476.
On another fundraising trip to the US, in 1977, he met Lee McGeorge, a zoology student working on a Ph.D. on the animals of Madagascar.Botting (1999), pp. 416–417. He was immediately attracted to her, and courted her, mostly by letter, over the next year, before she finally agreed to marry him.Botting (1999), pp. 418–421; 445. The wedding was held in May 1979, shortly after Durrell's divorce was finalised.Botting (1999), p. 466.
In 1986 Durrell had hip-replacement surgery in a bid to counter arthritis,Botting (1999), p. 545. and the following year the other hip was also replaced.Botting (1999), p. 548. In January 1994 he was diagnosed with liver cancer and cirrhosis, and given only a few months to live.Botting (1999), pp. 583–584. In March he received a liver transplant; he drank whisky on the way to the hospital, and arrived inebriated, but the operation went ahead.Botting (1999), p. 588. He died of septicaemia on 30 January 1995.Botting (1999), p. 598. Some of his ashes were scattered on the islet of Pontikonisi, off Corfu, to which Durrell used to swim as a child. The remainder are buried in Jersey Zoo, under a memorial plaque bearing a quote by William Beebe, an early advocate for conservation:Botting (1999), pp. 600–601.Gould (2004), p. 375.
The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanishing harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.
Much of Durrell's influence on the world of conservation has come through the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo. The zoo was one of the earliest to make conservation a central part of its mission,Hancocks (2001), p. 111. and the Durrell Conservation Academy has trained thousands of people in conservation biology, captive breeding, and the role of zoos in conservation.Pollock (2024), p. 183. In Durrell's early career, London Zoo was opposed to his work; years later one of the Academy's graduates became director of London Zoo, in "a moment of triumph and vindication", in the words of the science writer Richard Conniff.Conniff (1999), p. 25.Botting (1999), p. 575. The expertise in captive breeding acquired by the Trust and zoo were praised by David Attenborough in a 2009 speech: "Nobody else, nobody else, has accumulated the sort of expertise in how to breed endangered species and... how to export that expertise to the countries where the endangered animal is indigenous". For Attenborough, the institution Durrell created became "far more important perhaps than even Gerry realized it would be. The worldwide importance of this institution... is tremendous".Pollock (2024), p. 186. The Trust, sometimes in collaboration with other organisations, has been responsible for the restoration of Round Island's ecosystem, for breeding many species in captivity for the first time, and for projects to reintroduce animals bred in captivity to the wild.Leader-Williams & Rosser (2010), p. 229.
Durrell became an OBE in 1982.Botting (1999), p. 515. Several species have been named after him, including Clarkeia durrelli, a fossil brachiopod from the Upper Silurian age, named by Gérard Laubacher and others "in admiration of Gerald Durrell whose appreciation of natural history has made this a better world".Laubacher et al. (1982), pp. 1138, 1161–1163. Living animals named after Durrell include Durrell's night gecko, a species of gecko native to the Mauritius archipelago and now surviving only on Round Island, named after Gerald and Lee Durrell by Edwin Nicholas Arnold and Clive G. Jones.Arnold & Jones (1994), pp. 119–131. In 2010 Durrell's vontsira, a carnivoran species related to the brown-tailed mongoose, from Lake Alaotra, Madagascar, was named after Gerald Durrell, "inspirational writer and conservationist", by Joanna Durbin and others.Durbin et al. (2010), pp. 341–355. Espadarana durrellorum, a glassfrog of the family Centrolenidae from the eastern Andean foothills of Ecuador, was named by Diego Cisneros-Heredia in honour of Gerald and Lee Durrell "for their contributions to the conservation of global biodiversity".Guayasamin et al. (2020), pp. 2, 104.
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