Myself and Other Animals
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  • Published: 3 December 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241738139
  • Imprint: Viking Non Fiction
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

Myself and Other Animals

Formats & editions
Hardback
3 Dec 2024
EBook
5 Dec 2024
Audiobook
5 Dec 2024
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A final posthumous work of autobiography from the beloved conservationist and naturalist Gerald Durrell, to celebrate the centenary of his birth

A final 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 • ‘One of the finest and most lyrical nature writers in English’ OBSERVER

Myself and Other Animals is a new book mosaicked from unpublished autobiographies, uncollected pieces and previously published extracts from Durrell’s work and archives.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.
  • Published: 3 December 2024
  • ISBN: 9780241738139
  • Imprint: Viking Non Fiction
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

About the author

Gerald Durrell

Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) moved from England to Corfu with his family when he was eight. He spent much of his time studying the island's wildlife and surprising his family by keeping lots of very unusual pets in very unexpected places. He grew up to be a famous naturalist and conservationist, leading expeditions to exotic places such as Argentina, Sierra Leone, Assam and Madagascar. Durrell dedicated his life to the preservation of wildlife, especially the less glamorous kinds, which he called 'little brown jobs' and 'small uglies'. It is through his efforts that creatures such as the Mauritius pink pigeon and the Mallorcan midwife toad have avoided extinction.

Over his lifetime he presented many TV shows, and wrote thirty-seven books, including My Family and Other Animals and its two sequels,Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods. He founded Jersey Zoo in 1959 as a centre for the conservation of endangered species, and in 1963 created the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust - later renamed Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in his honour - of which his wife, Lee, is still Honorary Director. He was awarded the OBE in 1982.

Also by Gerald Durrell

My Family and Other Animals
The Corfu Trilogy
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives
Birds, Beasts And Relatives
The Garden of the Gods
The Aye-Aye and I
Encounters with Animals
See all

Praise for Myself and Other Animals

Replete with characters of feathers, fur and fin, it offers an intimate picture of the naturalist and his travels

National Geographic

Nature’s most rapt inspector, ally and celebrant . . . I could read about Durrell’s wildlife encounters all day . . . a wise, genial and world-encompassing book

John Walsh, Sunday Times

A moving tribute to Gerald's endeavours and achievements as a conservationist

Richard Bradford, Spectator

Celebrates his extraordinary life in technicolour

Matt Nixson, Daily Express

Fills important gaps in the biographical narrative . . . Truly, there is magic here

Kathryn Hughes, Guardian

A generous and magnificent achievement – an autobiography, of sorts, composed of excerpts both well-known and rare, each carrying Durrell’s distinctive, engaging and entertaining voice. A century on from the beloved conservationist’s birth, when so many forms of life remain at risk of extinction, it also stands as an important call to action before it’s too late

Julian Hoffman, author of Lifelines and Irreplaceable
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