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  • Published: 21 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141971315
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

The Whispering Land




'When you have a large collection of animals to transport from one end of the world to the other you cannot, as a lot of people seem to think, just hoist them aboard the nearest ship and set off with a gay wave of your hand.'

Gerald Durrell and his wife are the proud owners of a small zoo on the island of Jersey. But there's one thing that's better than a small zoo - a bigger one! So Durrell heads off to South America to collect more animals.

Along windswept Patagonian shores and in Argentine tropical forests, he encounters a range of animals from penguins to elephant seals. But as always, he is drawn to those rare and interesting creatures which he hopes will thrive and breed in captivity . . .

Told with enthusiasm and without sentimentality, Gerald Durrell's The Whispering Land is an often hilarious but always inspiring foray into the South American wilds.

  • Published: 21 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141971315
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

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.

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Praise for The Whispering Land

Animals come close to being Durrell's best friends. He writes about them with style, verve and humour

Time

An amusing writer who transforms this Argentine backcountry into a particularly inviting place

San Francisco Chronicle

A splendid success

New Yorker

A delight, with never a dull moment from Buenos Aires to Patagonia, thanks to Durrell's extraordinary ability to communicate his exuberant pleasure in his chosen work

New York Times
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