Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell
Gerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell, OBEwas a British naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter. He founded what are now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Durrell Wildlife Park on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959, but is perhaps best remembered for writing a number of books based on his life as an animal collector and enthusiast. He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell...
ProfessionTV Show Host
Date of Birth7 January 1925
atmosphere produce expected
I can't be expected to produce deathless prose in an atmosphere of gloom and eucalyptus.
knitting wish arguing
I do wish you wouldn't argue with me when I'm knitting.
book ems panic
'All we need is a book,' roared Leslie; 'don't panic, hit 'em with a book.
cake tea rising
Tea would arrive, the cakes squatting on cushions of cream, toast in a melting shawl of butter, cups agleam and a faint wisp of steam rising from the teapot shawl.
voice fire tree
As I watched the pulsing fire among the trees and heard the beat of the drum merge and tremble with the voices, forming an intricate pattern of sound, I knew that someday I would have to return or be haunted forever by the beauty and mystery that is Africa.
knowledge ignorant half
I said I *liked* being half-educated; you were so much more *surprised* at everything when you were ignorant.
islands magic pollen
Gradually the magic of the island [Corfu] settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen.
zoos sides preservation
Zoos should concentrate more on the preservation side of things.
suicide suicidal erosion
Erosion, desertification, and pollution have become our lot. It is a weird form of suicide, for we are bleeding our planet to death.
wine glasses singing
What fools we are, eh? What fools, sitting here in the sun, singing. And of love, too! I am too old for it and you are too young, and yet we waste our time singing about it. Ah, well, let's have a glass of wine, eh?
children giving childhood
My childhood in Corfu shaped my life. If I had the craft of Merlin, I would give every child the gift of my childhood.
love-you animal wife
Animals generally return the love you lavish on them by a swift bite in passing-not unlike friends and wives.
heaven doubt evening
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.
humble butterfly eye
Among the myrtles the mantids moved, lightly, carefully, swaying slightly, the quintessence of evil. They were lank and green, with chinless faces and monstrous globular eyes, frosty gold, with an expression of intense, predatory madness in them. The crooked arms, with their fringes of sharp teeth, would be raised in mock supplication to the insect world, so humble, so fervent, trembling slightly when a butterfly flew too close.