Gerald Durrell

Also known as Gerald Malcolm Durrell

British naturalist and writer (1925–1995)

Person · Open Library

Born: 7 January 1925
Died: 30 January 1995
Works: 356

Top works

Catch me a Colobus
Catch Me A Colobus
The Amateur Naturalist
Tres billetes hacia la aventura
The Bafut Beagles

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Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 247
Total plays: 10,062

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Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,351x
Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome
· 2001 · cited 18,518x
Improved Survival with Ipilimumab in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma
· 2010 · cited 12,895x
An Overview of CMIP5 and the Experiment Design
· 2012 · cited 11,677x
Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization
· 2016 · cited 8,531x

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Quotes

“Right in the Heart of the African Jungle a small white man lives. Now there is one extraordinary fact about him that he is the friend of all animals.”
“There is no first world and third world. There is only one world, for all of us to live and delight in.”
“If naturalists go to heaven (about which there is considerable ecclesiastical doubt), I hope that I will be furnished with a troop of kakapo to amuse me in the evening instead of television.”
“Gradually the magic of the island settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen. Each day had a tranquillity, a timelessness, about it so that you wished it would never end. But then the dark skin of night would peel off and there would be a fresh day waiting for us, glossy and colourful as a child's transfer and with the same tinge of unreality.”
“I said I liked being half-educated; you were so much more surprised at everything when you were ignorant.”
“An immensely tall, angular figure … His gown hung round him in long folds like the wings of a bat, and his wig was perched slightly askew over a lantern jawed face with a blue chin, soulful spaniel-brown eyes and a turned-down mouth like a slit. But for his garb, you would have said that he was a dyspeptic undertaker in a town where nobody ever died.”

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Key facts

Born: Gerald Malcolm Durrell , ( 1925-01-07 ) 7 January 1925, Jamshedpur , India
Died: 30 January 1995 (1995-01-30) (aged 70), Saint Helier , Jersey
Known for: Naturalist writer founder of Jersey Zoo television presenter conservationist
Spouses: Jacquie Rasen ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1951 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1979 ) Lee Wilson ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1979 )
Parents: Lawrence Samuel Durrell (father) Louisa Durrell (mother)
Relatives: Lawrence Durrell (brother) Margaret Durrell (sister) Leslie Durrell (brother)
Author abbrev zoology: Durrell

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Wikidata facts

Image: Gerald Durrell, Askania Nova.jpg

Show 6 more facts

Commons category: Gerald Durrell
date of birth: 1925-01-07
date of death: 1995-01-30
Commons gallery: Gerald Durrell
name in native language: Gerald Malcolm Durrell
P6944: Gerald Durrell

Sources (5)

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~40 min read

Article

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 Rasen 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.