Where did Gerald Durrell live? About families and animals. Genius against use

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99 facts from the life of Gerald Durrell

Like every Soviet child, I loved Gerald Durrell's books since childhood. Taking into account the fact that I loved animals and learned to read very early, the bookcases were meticulously searched as a child for any of Darrell’s books, and the books themselves were read many times.

Then I grew up, my love for animals subsided a little, but my love for Darrell’s books remained. True, over time I began to notice that this love was not entirely cloudless. If before I simply devoured books, as a reader should, smiling and sad in the right places, later, reading them as an adult, I discovered something like understatements. There were few of them, they were skillfully hidden, but for some reason it seemed to me that the ironic and good-natured merry fellow Darrell somehow here and there seemed to be covering up a piece of his life or deliberately focusing the reader’s attention on other things. I wasn’t a lawyer then, but for some reason I felt that something was wrong here.

To my shame, I have not read any biographies of Darrell. It seemed to me that the author already described his life in great detail in numerous books, leaving no room for speculation. Yes, sometimes, already on the Internet, I came across “shocking” revelations from various sources, but they were artless and, frankly speaking, were hardly capable of seriously shocking anyone. Well, yes, Gerald himself, it turns out, drank like a fish. Well, yes, he divorced his first wife. Well, yes, there seem to be rumors that the Durrells were not such a friendly and loving family as it seems to the inexperienced reader...

But at some point I came across a biography of Gerald Durrell by Douglas Botting. The book turned out to be quite voluminous and I started reading it by accident. But once I started, I couldn’t stop. I can't explain why. I must admit, I have long found much more interesting books than the books of Gerald Durrell. And I'm not ten years old anymore. And yes, I realized a long time ago that people very often tell lies - for a variety of reasons. But I read it. Not because I have some kind of manic interest in Gerald Durrell or because I persistently strive to reveal everything that his family hid from journalists for many years. No. I just thought it was interesting to find all those tiny innuendos and suggestive signs that I caught as a child.

In this regard, Botting's book was ideal. As befits a good biographer, he talks in great detail and calmly about Gerald Durrell throughout his life. From childhood to old age. He is dispassionate and, despite immense respect for the subject of the biography, does not seek to hide his vices, nor does he solemnly demonstrate them to the public. Botting writes about a person, balancedly, carefully, leaving nothing out. This is by no means a dirty laundry hunter, quite the opposite. Sometimes he is even shyly laconic in those parts of Darrell’s biography that would be enough for newspapers to write a couple of hundred catchy headlines.

As a matter of fact, the entire subsequent text essentially consists of about 90% of Botting’s notes; the rest had to be filled in from other sources. I simply wrote down individual facts as I read, solely for myself, without expecting that the summary would take more than two pages. But by the end of reading there were twenty of them, and I realized that I really didn’t know much about my childhood idol. And once again, no, I’m not talking about dirty secrets, family vices and other obligatory vicious ballast of a good-looking British family. Here I post only those facts that, while reading, surprised me, amazed me, or seemed interesting. Simply put, individual and small details of Darrell’s life, the understanding of which, it seems to me, will allow us to take a more careful look at his life and read the books in a new way.

I'll break the post into three parts to fit it in. In addition, all the facts will be neatly divided into chapters - in accordance with the milestones of Darrell's life.

The first chapter will be the shortest, as it tells about Darrell's early childhood and his life in India.

1. Initially, the Durrells lived in British India, where Durrell Sr. worked fruitfully as a civil engineer. He managed to provide for his family, the income from his enterprises and securities helped them for a long time, but he also had to pay a severe price - at the age of forty-something Lawrence Darrell (senior) died, apparently from a stroke. After his death, the decision was made to return to England, where, as you know, the family did not stay long.

2. It would seem that Jerry Darrell, a lively and spontaneous child with a monstrous thirst for learning new things, should have become, if not an excellent student in school, then at least the soul of the party. But no. School was so disgusting to him that he felt bad every time he was forcibly taken there. The teachers, for their part, considered him a dull and lazy child. And he himself almost lost consciousness at the mere mention of school.

3. Despite their British citizenship, all family members had a surprisingly similar attitude towards their historical homeland, namely, they could not stand it. Larry Darrell called it Pudding Island and argued that a mentally healthy person in Foggy Albion is not able to survive for more than a week. The rest were practically unanimous with him and tirelessly confirmed their position with practice. Mother and Margot subsequently settled firmly in France, followed by the adult Gerald. Leslie settled down in Kenya. As for Larry, he was constantly traveling all over the world, and he visited England on short visits, and with obvious displeasure. However, I have already gotten ahead of myself.

4. The mother of the large and noisy Durrell family, despite the fact that she appears in her son’s texts as an absolutely infallible person with only merits, had her own little weaknesses, one of which was alcohol from her youth. Their mutual friendship was born in India, and after the death of her husband it only steadily grew stronger. According to the recollections of acquaintances and eyewitnesses, Mrs. Darrell went to bed exclusively in the company of a bottle of gin, but in the preparation of homemade wines she outshone everyone and everything. However, looking ahead again, the love of alcohol seems to have been passed on to all members of this family, albeit unevenly.

Let's move on to Jerry's childhood in Corfu, which later became the basis for the wonderful book My Family and Other Animals. I read this book as a child and re-read it probably twenty times. And the older I got, the more often it seemed to me that this narrative, endlessly optimistic, bright and ironic, was missing something. The pictures of the cloudless existence of the Durrell family in the pristine Greek paradise were too beautiful and natural. I can’t say that Darrell seriously embellished reality, glossed over some shameful details or something like that, but discrepancies with reality in some places may surprise the reader.

According to researchers of Durrell's work, biographers and critics, the entire trilogy ("My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts and Relatives", "Garden of the Gods") is not very uniform in terms of authenticity and the reliability of the events presented, so it should not be assumed completely Autobiographical is still not worth it. It is generally accepted that only the first book became truly documentary; the events described in it fully correspond to the real ones, perhaps with minor inclusions of fantasy and inaccuracies. It should, however, be taken into account that Darrell began writing the book at the age of thirty-one, and in Corfu he was ten, so many details of his childhood could easily be lost in memory or acquired imaginary details. Other books are much more prone to fiction, being more of a fusion of fiction and non-fiction. Thus, the second book (“Birds, Beasts and Relatives”) includes a large number of fictional stories, Darrell later even regretted including some of them. Well, the third (“Garden of the Gods”) is actually a work of art with your favorite characters.

Corfu: Margot, Nancy, Larry, Jerry, mom.

5. Judging by the book, Larry Darrell constantly lived with the entire family, annoying its members with irritating self-confidence and poisonous sarcasm, and also serving from time to time as a source of trouble of various shapes, properties and sizes. This is not entirely true. The fact is that Larry never lived in the same house with his family. From the first day in Greece, he and his wife Nancy rented their own house, and at certain periods of time they even lived in a neighboring city, but only periodically dropped in to visit their relatives. Moreover, Margot and Leslie, when they reached the age of twenty, also showed attempts to live an independent life and for some time lived separately from the rest of the family.

Larry Darrell

6. Don’t you remember his wife Nancy?.. However, it would be surprising if they did, since she is simply absent from the book “My Family and Other Animals”. But she was not invisible. Nancy often visited the Durrell houses with Larry and certainly deserved at least a couple of paragraphs of text. There is an opinion that it was erased from the manuscript by the author, allegedly because of a bad relationship with the mother of a troubled family, but this is not so. Gerald deliberately did not mention her in the book in order to establish an emphasis on "family", leaving only the Durrells in focus. Nancy would hardly have made a supporting figure like Theodore or Spiro; after all, she was not a servant, but she didn’t want to be associated with the family either. In addition, at the time of publication of the book (1956), Larry and Nancy’s marriage had broken up, so there was even less desire to remember the old things. So, just in case, the author completely lost his brother’s wife between the lines. It was as if she was not in Corfu at all.

Larry and his wife Nancy, 1934

7. Jerry's temporary teacher, Kralewski, a shy dreamer and author of crazy stories “about the Lady,” actually existed, only his last name had to be changed, just in case, from the original “Krajewski” to “Kralewski.” This was hardly done for fear of prosecution from the island's most inspired myth-maker. The fact is that Krajewski, along with his mother and all the canaries, died tragically during the war - a German bomb fell on his house.

8. I won’t go into detail about Theodore Stefanides, a naturalist and Jerry’s first real teacher. He has distinguished himself enough over his long life to deserve it. I will only note that Theo and Jerry’s friendship lasted not only during the “Corfucian” period. Over the decades, they met many times and, although they did not work together, they maintained an excellent relationship until their deaths. The fact that he played a significant role in the Durrell family is evidenced by the fact that both writing brothers, Larry and Jerry, subsequently dedicated books to him, “The Greek Islands” (Lawrence Durrell) and “Birds, Beasts and Kin” (Gerald Durrell ). Darrell also dedicated “The Young Naturalist,” one of his most successful works, to him.

Theodore Stephanides

9. Remember the colorful story about the Greek Kostya, who killed his wife, but whom the prison authorities periodically let him go for a walk and unwind? This meeting actually happened, with one small difference - the Darrell who met the strange prisoner was named Leslie. Yes, Jerry attributed it to himself just in case.

10. The text reveals that the Booth Thicktail, the Durrell family's epic boat on which Jerry carried out his scientific expeditions, was built by Leslie. In fact, it was just bought. All her technical improvements consisted of installing a homemade mast (unsuccessful).

11. Another of Jerry's teachers, called Peter (actually Pat Evans), did not leave the island during the war. Instead, he joined the partisans and showed himself very well in this field. Unlike poor fellow Kraevsky, he even remained alive and later returned to his homeland as a hero.

12. The reader involuntarily gets the feeling that the Durrell family found their Eden immediately after arriving on the island, only staying at the hotel for a short time. In fact, this period of their life dragged on for quite some time, and it was difficult to call it pleasant. The fact is that due to some financial circumstances, the mother of the family temporarily lost access to funds from England. So for some time the family lived practically from hand to mouth, on pasture. What kind of Eden is this... The true savior was Spiro, who not only found a new home for the Durrells, but also in some unknown way settled all disagreements with the Greek bank.

13. It is unlikely that ten-year-old Gerald Durrell, accepting goldfish from Spiro, stolen by a resourceful Greek from the royal pond, imagined that thirty years later he himself would become an honored guest in the royal palace.

Spiro and Jerry

14. By the way, financial circumstances, among others, explain the family’s departure back to England. The Durrells originally had shares in some Burmese enterprise, inherited from their late father. With the advent of the war, this financial stream was completely blocked, and others became thinner every day. The end result was that Mission Durrell was faced with the need to return to London to organize her financial assets.

15. From the text, one gets the full feeling that the family has returned home in full force with an appendage like a bunch of animals. But this is a serious inaccuracy. Only Jerry himself, his mother, his brother Leslie and the Greek maid returned to England. All the rest remained in Corfu, despite the outbreak of war and the threatening position of Corfu in the light of recent military-political events. Larry and Nancy stayed there until the last, but then they finally left Corfu by ship. The most surprising behavior of all was Margot, who in the text is depicted as a very narrow-minded and simple-minded person. She fell in love with Greece so much that she refused to return even if it was occupied by German troops. Agree, remarkable fortitude for a simple-minded girl of twenty years old. By the way, she still left the island on the last plane, succumbing to the persuasion of one flight technician, whom she later married.

16. By the way, there is one more small detail regarding Margot that is still in the shadows. It is believed that her brief absence from the island (mentioned by Darrell) is due to her sudden pregnancy and departure to England for an abortion. It’s difficult to say something here. Botting doesn't mention anything like that, but he's very tactful and hasn't been seen trying to deliberately pull skeletons out of Darrell's closets.

17. By the way, the relationship between the British family and the native Greek population was not as idyllic as it seems from the text. No, no serious quarrels arose with the local residents, but those around them did not look at the Durrells very favorably. Dissolute Leslie (more about whom is yet to come) had plenty of fun in his time and will be remembered for his not always sober antics, while Margot was generally considered a fallen woman, perhaps partly because of her predilection for revealing swimsuits.

Here ends one of the main chapters of Gerald Durrell's life. As he himself admitted many times, Corfu left a very serious imprint on him. But Gerald Durrell after Corfu is a completely different Gerald Durrell. He is no longer a boy, carefree studying the fauna in the front garden, but already a teenager and young man, taking his first steps in the direction he has chosen for the rest of his life. Perhaps the most exciting chapter of his life begins. Adventurous expeditions, rushing, impulses characteristic of youth, hopes and aspirations, love...

18. Darrell's education ended before it really began. He did not go to school, did not receive a higher education, and did not secure any scientific titles for himself. Apart from self-education, his only “scientific” help was a short period of work in an English zoo in the lowest position of an auxiliary worker. However, at the end of his life he was an “honorary professor” of several universities. But this will be very, very long time ago...

19. Young Gerald did not go to war due to a happy coincidence of circumstances - he turned out to be the owner of an advanced sinus disease (chronic catarrh). “Do you want to fight, son? – the officer asked him honestly. "No, sir." "You are a coward?" "Yes, sir". The officer sighed and sent the failed conscript on his way, mentioning, however, that in order to call oneself a coward, a fair amount of courage is required. Be that as it may, Gerald Durrell did not go to war, which is good news.

20. A similar failure befell his brother Leslie. A big fan of everything that could shoot, Leslie wanted to volunteer for the war, but he was also turned away by soulless doctors - he had problems with his ears. Judging by the individual events of his life, what was located between them was also subject to treatment, but more on that separately and later. I can only note that in his family, despite the ardent love of his mother, he was considered a dark and dissolute horse, regularly causing anxiety and trouble.

21. Soon after returning to his historical homeland, Leslie managed to give birth to a child to that same Greek maid and, although the times were far from Victorian, the situation turned out to be very delicate. And she seriously tarnished the family’s reputation after it turned out that Leslie was not going to marry or recognize the child. Thanks to the care of Margot and the mother, the situation was put under control, and the child was given shelter and upbringing. However, this did not have a pedagogical effect on Leslie.

22. For a long time he could not find work, either openly idle, or embarking on all sorts of dubious adventures, from delivering alcohol (is it legal?) to what his family shyly called “speculation.” In general, the guy was on his way to success, while simultaneously trying to find his place in a big and cruel world. Almost didn't come. I mean, at some point he had to urgently get ready for a business trip to Kenya, where he would work for many years. In general, he evokes a certain sympathy. The only one of the Durrells who was never able to find his calling, but he was surrounded on all sides by famous relatives.

23. There is a feeling that Leslie became an outcast immediately after Corfu. The Darrells somehow very quickly and willingly cut off his branch from the family tree, despite the fact that for some time they still shared shelter with him. Margo about her brother: “ Leslie is a short, unauthorized home invader, a Rabelaisian figure, lavishing paint on canvases or deeply immersed in the labyrinths of weapons, boats, beer and women, also without a penny, having invested all his inheritance in a fishing boat, which sank before its first voyage in Poole Harbor».

Lawrence Durrell.

24. By the way, Margot herself also did not escape commercial temptation. She turned her part of the inheritance into a fashionable “boarding house”, from which she intended to have a stable profit. She wrote her own memoirs on this subject, but I must admit, I have not had time to read them yet. However, taking into account the fact that later, with two living brothers, she was forced to work as a maid on the liner, the “boarding business” still did not justify itself.

Margo Durrell

25. Gerald Durrell's expeditions did not make him famous, although they were readily covered in newspapers and on the radio. He became famous overnight by publishing his first book, “The Overloaded Ark.” Yes, those were the times when a person, having written the first book in his life, suddenly became a world celebrity. By the way, Jerry didn’t want to write this book. Experiencing a physiological aversion to writing, he tormented himself and his household for a long time and completed the text only thanks to his brother Larry, who endlessly insisted and motivated. The first was quickly followed by two more. All became instant bestsellers. Like all the other books that he published after them.

26. The only book that Gerald admittedly enjoyed writing was My Family and Other Animals. It is not surprising, given that absolutely all members of the Durrell family remembered Corfu with constant tenderness. Nostalgia is a quintessentially English dish after all.

27. Even when reading Darrell's first books, one gets the feeling that the story is told from the perspective of an experienced professional animal catcher. His confidence, his knowledge of wild fauna, his judgment, all this betrays a highly experienced man who has devoted his entire life to capturing wild animals in the most distant and terrible corners of the globe. Meanwhile, at the time of writing these books, Jareld was only slightly over twenty, and all his experience consisted of three expeditions, each of which lasted about six months.

28. Several times the young animal catcher had to be on the verge of death. Not as often as it happens with characters in adventure novels, but still much more often than the average British gentleman. Once, due to his own recklessness, he managed to plunge into a pit infested with poisonous snakes. He himself considered it incredible luck that he managed to get out of it alive. Another time, the snake tooth still overtook its victim. Being sure that he was dealing with a non-venomous snake, Darrell became careless and almost passed into another world. The only thing that saved me was that the doctor miraculously had the necessary serum. Several more times he had to suffer from not the most pleasant diseases - sand fever, malaria, jaundice...

29. Despite the image of a lean and energetic animal catcher, in everyday life Gerald behaved like a true homebody. He hated physical exertion and could easily sit in a chair all day.

30. By the way, all three expeditions were equipped personally by Gerald himself, and the inheritance from his father, which he received upon reaching adulthood, was used to finance them. These expeditions gave him considerable experience, but from a financial point of view they turned into a complete collapse, without even recouping the funds spent.

31. Initially, Gerald Durrell did not treat the indigenous population of the British colonies very politely. He considered it possible to order them, to drive them as he pleased, and generally did not put them on the same level as a British gentleman. However, this attitude towards representatives of the Third World quickly changed. Having lived in the company of black people continuously for several months, Gerald began to treat them quite humanly and even with obvious sympathy. It’s a paradox, later his books were criticized more than once precisely because of the “national factor.” At that time, Britain was entering a period of post-colonial repentance, and it was no longer considered politically correct to display unsightly, funny-speaking, and simple-minded savages on the pages of text.

32. Yes, despite the flurry of positive criticism, worldwide fame and millions of copies, Durrell's books were often criticized. And sometimes - on the part of lovers not of colorful people, but of the most animal lovers. It was at that time that “Greenpeace” and neo-ecological movements arose and took shape, the paradigm of which assumed a complete “hands off nature”, and zoos were often viewed as concentration camps for animals. Darrell suffered a lot of bloodshed while he was proving that zoos help preserve endangered species of fauna and achieve their stable reproduction.

33. There were also pages in Gerald Durrell's biography that he, apparently, would have willingly burned himself. For example, once in South America he tried to catch a baby hippopotamus. This occupation is difficult and dangerous, since they do not walk alone, and the parents of the hippopotamus, when they see their offspring being caught, become extremely dangerous and angry. The only way out was to kill two adult hippopotamuses, so that later they could catch their baby without interference. Reluctantly, Darrell agreed to this, he really needed “big animals” for zoos. The case ended unsuccessfully for all those involved. Having killed the female hippopotamus and driven away the male, Darrell discovered that the captured baby had just been swallowed by a hungry alligator. Finita. This incident left a serious imprint on him. Firstly, Darrell was silent during this episode without inserting any of his text. Secondly, from that moment on, he, who previously hunted with interest and was a good shooter, completely stopped destroying fauna with his own hands.

34. Many noted the extraordinary similarity between the two Darrells - Lawrence (Larry) and Gerald (Jerry). They were even similar in appearance, both were short, thick-set, with an extremely attractive disposition, ironic, a little bilious, both excellent storytellers, both writers, both could not stand England. The third brother, Leslie, was also very similar to them in terms of appearance, but in other respects...

Larry, Jackie, Gerald, Chumlee

35. By the way, the older brother, now considered a classic of English literature of the twentieth century in a more “serious” genre, came to popular recognition a little later than the younger one, despite the fact that he began to practice on the literary front much earlier, and, accordingly, to publish too.

36. In 1957, when the Queen herself presented Lawrence Durrell with an award for Bitter Lemons, his mother was unable to attend this highly solemn event. she had nothing to wear and, besides, she had to look after the chimpanzees».

Gerald, mom, Margot, Larry.

37. I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that Gerald Durrell was a ladies’ man or, to be completely honest, a womanizer. Since his youth, he had honed his manner of dealing with women and was recognized by many as extremely attractive. However, as for me, his manner of flirting was not distinguished by its frivolity; quite the contrary, it often consisted of frivolous hints and vulgar jokes. And even twenty years later, the director who filmed Darrell for a series of programs noted: “ His jokes were so salty that they could not be aired even at the latest time».

38. The story of marrying Jackie (Jacqueline) was also not easy. Gerald, who always preferred well-built blondes, suddenly changed his taste when he one day met the hotel owner’s daughter, young and dark-haired Jackie. Their romance developed in a very unusual way, since Jackie initially developed the most sincere antipathy for the young (at that time) trapper. Natural charm over time helped Darrell gain her consent to marriage. But even this did not work for her father - having married against her father’s will, Jackie never saw him again. By the way, sometimes there is a latent feeling that in terms of the number of cockroaches in her head, she could give odds to her husband’s entomological collection. “I decided never to have children - the life of an ordinary housewife is not for me.”

Jackie Darrell

39. However, everything was not very clear about the children of Gerald Darrell and his wife. He himself did not strive to have children and, again, according to his wife, in some ways was a true childfree. On the other hand, Jackie was pregnant twice and twice her pregnancies unfortunately ended in miscarriage. By the way, due to their poor financial condition, Gerald and Jackie lived for a long time in the same boarding house of sister Margot.

Gerald and Jackie Darrell.

40. Darrell also had ill-wishers from among his colleagues. Many recognized zoologists, including academically educated gentlemen, were extremely jealous of the successes of his expeditions - the impudent boy managed, by pure luck, as they believed, to take possession of extremely rare and valuable specimens of fauna. So it should not be surprising that the amount of venom poured on Darrell in scientific publications and newspapers periodically exceeded the amount of venom contained in all African snakes combined if someone squeezed them dry. He was blamed for his complete lack of specialized education, for his barbaric methods, for his lack of theoretical knowledge, for his arrogance and self-confidence, etc. One of Durrell's most influential and authoritative opponents was George Cansdale, director of the London Zoo. However, he always had a thousand times more fans.

41. Another sad note. The chimpanzee Chumley, who became Darrell's favorite and was brought by him to an English zoo, did not live long on Pudding Island. After a few years, imprisonment began to weigh heavily on him and he escaped twice, and at times his temper completely deteriorated. After the second time, when he began to rampage on the street, breaking into locked cars, zoo workers were forced to shoot the monkey, considering it dangerous to people. By the way, the director of the zoo himself ordered this to be done, yes, that same George Cansdale, who devoted a lot of energy to devastating criticism of Darrell and was considered his sworn enemy.

Since you don’t want to fill the post entirely with photographs, you can look at the very interesting collection “From the life of the Durrells in their natural habitat” -

The biography of Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) - zoologist, naturalist, writer - was filled with various travels to isolated and remote corners of the globe.

Childhood and youth

Jerry was the fourth and youngest child of an English civil engineer working in India. When his father died and Jerry was three years old, the whole family, headed by their delicate mother Louise Florence Durrell, returned to their homeland. They lived in the resort town of Bournemouth, a hundred kilometers from London. Compared to hot India, it was, of course, uncomfortable here: even in summer it rained and was cold. At the insistence of his eldest brother Lawrence (Larry), in 1935 the whole family moved to Greece to the island of Corfu, which is now called Kerkyra.

On a Greek island

Life on it, like heaven, will fly by in an instant. Gerald Durrell's biography will be filled with friendly communication with Greek peasants, Dr. Theodore Stefanidis (1896-1983), extraordinary French teachers and daily walks with his beloved and faithful dog Roger. This is what ten-year-old Jerry looked like.

By the age of ten, Jerry had still not mastered English. While keeping a diary, he managed to make at least two mistakes in every word. The only thing he was never wrong about was writing the names of animals and insects. This was discovered by Larry, who by this time had become a professional writer and wrote three novels in Corfu. They were published in the same years. The Durrell house was cheerful and noisy. Picnics and parties were held there at the slightest occasion, and often without it at all. Darrell will describe this wonderful life in the book “My Family and Animals.” And the BBC channel will make a charming multi-part film that will convey the atmosphere of the book and their lives.

The photo above is a still from this film.

The war and the first years after it

The biography of Gerald Durrell, like everyone else, will be broken by the Second World War. I had to leave the wonderful island. Here is a still from the film that perfectly shows what the Durrell family looked like back then.

At the age of 14, immediately after returning to Britain, the teenager went to work in a shop. Of course, the zoological one, which was called “Aquarium”. When the war ended, Jerry began working at the zoo. He did not have a higher education, and therefore the position was the most modest. But he learned how to handle a wide variety of animals and began compiling lists of rare endangered animal species. He was the first to sound the alarm about them, although for now just for himself.

First expeditions

Having received an inheritance in 1947, the young man leaves for Africa. Gerald Durrell's biography is enriched by experiences and meetings in Cameroon and Guyana. But he is a bad financier. All the money is spent, and he finds himself penniless. On the advice of his older brother, he sits down at a typewriter. This does not please him, since he is not good with grammar and syntax. But the first story, “The Hunt for the Hairy Frog,” which Gerald gave to BBC radio, was a success. He was even invited to the studio. Further more. Darrell continues to write because only through literary works can he earn money for a new journey.

Gerald Durrell: biography, personal life

Gerald Durrell's life takes on a new experience. In 1951 he married Jackie (Jacqueline) Wolfenden. Since the candidate husband has no money, the bride’s father categorically objects to this marriage. The girl has to run away from home and marry her beloved against the will of her parents. They will live for free in the boarding house run by Jerry's sister Margaret. Their marriage would last until 1979. During these years, many books will be written and many expeditions will be organized. Darrell will dedicate the book “Under the Forest Canopy” to his faithful friend. However, everyday difficulties, Gerald's passion only for work, as well as alcohol, will lead them to divorce after 28 years of marriage.

In 1977, Gerald Durrell, whose biography has always been unpredictable, meets a young woman at Carolina University who enthusiastically studies the behavior of lemurs. She was 28 years old at the time, Darrell was 52. He was stunned - a beautiful woman was interested in zoology. Darrell was at first simply interested in Lee. And then I got carried away and asked to marry him. Lee McGeorge Wilson also did not immediately have any special feelings for the middle-aged zoologist. But after he left for India, they began to correspond, interest grew into friendship and love. Now they've teamed up, Lee and Gerald Durrell's biography. The photo shows the beginning of their life together.

The wife accompanied her restless husband on the last three expeditions. In 1982 - to the island of Mauritius, in 1986 - to Russia and in 1990 - to Madagascar. So they remained a loving couple until Darrell’s last days.

Life and work

But let's continue about the restless zoologist and writer. Gerald Durrell, whose short biography shows this, never stayed in one place for long. In 1954, he was already in Paraguay, but due to the coup in the country, the collected collection of animals could not be transported to the zoo. In 1955, Darrell came to his brother Lawrence in Corfu, and there the most popular book about childhood was born, which was published in millions of copies around the world. It has already been said that a film was made based on it in England. Here's another shot from it, showing the traveling zoo. In 1959, Darrell created a zoo on the island of Jersey, where rare animals have been protected since 1963.

He sought to have them breed in captivity and then be sent back to their natural habitats. If not for Darrell’s activities, many rare species would have disappeared forever. In 1985, Darrell came to the USSR and filmed a serial film. In total, during his life, the zoologist made thirty-five films and wrote more than thirty books.

In 1995, three weeks after he turned 70, Gerald Durrell died. Lee's wife continued his work, worked at the zoo, and wrote books about animals.

Gerald Durrell: biography for children

This will be a story about the activities of a passionate person who uttered his first word in India, since he was born there, and it was not “mother”, but “zoo”. From the age of two, everything was clear to him - he would become a naturalist-zoologist.

And by the age of ten, when he spent four years in Greece, he wandered through the olive groves and vineyards of the island of Corfu and watched, for example, turtles breed, or carefully watched the life of geckos, collected scorpions in matchboxes, to the horror of his older brother, he I already knew exactly my path in life. From every walk around the island he brought home some kind of animal. So, he could throw harmless but huge snakes into the bath, which everyone in the house mistook for terrible snakes. One mother completely understood his passion for animals. His older brothers and sister were still afraid of his animals, insects and birds. In his native Britain, his childhood in Corfu was made into a fun and entertaining film based on Durrell's book My Family and the Beasts.

He did not receive a systematic education and even wrote with errors, but nevertheless Darrell studied all his life. He was a passionate and gifted person. He created a zoo in which he bred rare animals. He made almost forty films about them in the wild and in national reserves around the world, and wrote more than thirty books about his travels around the world. Darrell came to our country and made a film consisting of 13 episodes and wrote the book “Darrell in Russia.” He founded the Wildlife Conservation Foundation. All his activities were filled with love for people and animals who must be protected and protected.

99 facts from the life of Gerald Durrell

I'll break the post into three parts to fit it in. In addition, all the facts will be neatly divided into chapters - in accordance with the milestones of Darrell's life.

The first chapter will be the shortest, as it tells about Darrell's early childhood and his life in India.

Corfu: Margot, Nancy, Larry, Jerry, mom.

Larry Darrell

Larry and his wife Nancy, 1934

Theodore Stephanides

Spiro and Jerry

Leslie Darrell.

Margo Durrell

29. Despite the image of a lean and energetic animal catcher, in everyday life Gerald behaved like a true homebody. He hated physical exertion and could easily sit in a chair all day.

Larry, Jackie, Gerald, Chumlee

Gerald, mom, Margot, Larry.

Jackie Darrell

Gerald and Jackie Darrell.

Since you don’t want to fill the post entirely with photographs, you can look at the very interesting collection “From the life of the Durrells in their natural habitat” -

It is said that the first word Gerald Durrell spoke was “zoo”. And his most vivid childhood memory was a pair of snails that he discovered in a ditch while walking with his nanny. The boy could not understand why she called these amazing creatures dirty and terrible. And the local menagerie, despite the unbearable smell of uncleaned cages that literally knocked visitors off their feet, for Gerald it turned out to be a real Klondike of impressions and an elementary school in understanding animals.

A caravan was walking through the Indian jungle. In front were elephants, loaded with carpets, tents and furniture, followed by servants on ox-drawn carts with bedding and dishes. Bringing up the rear of the caravan was a young Englishwoman on a horse, whom the Indians addressed as “Ma’am Sahib.” Engineer Lawrence Durrell's wife Louise followed her husband. Three tents housed a bedroom, a dining room and a living room. Behind a thin canvas wall, monkeys screamed at night, and snakes crawled under the dining table. A man could envy this woman’s courage and endurance. She was the ideal wife for the builder of an empire, not complaining about hardships and adversities, she was always by his side, whether he was building a bridge or laying a railway through the wilds.

So the years passed, and only the cities around the spouses changed: Darjeeling, Rangoon, Rajputana... In the winter of 1925, during a period of prolonged rains, when the family lived in the province of Bihar, their fourth child was born, a boy named Gerald. Louise and Lawrence were themselves born in India and, although they were subjects of the British Empire, in their way of life they were more likely to be Indians than English. Therefore, the birth of children in India and their upbringing by an Indian nanny were considered in the order of things.

But one day this family “paradise” was destroyed. When Jerry was 3 years old, the head of the family died unexpectedly. After weighing all the pros and cons, Louise made a difficult decision: to move to England with her children.

Larry, Leslie, Margaret and Jerry needed to be educated.

They settled in a huge gloomy mansion in the suburbs of London. Left alone after the death of her husband, Louise tried to find solace in alcohol. But peace of mind did not come. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Mrs. Durrell began to claim that a ghost lived in the house. To get rid of this neighborhood, I had to move to Norwood. But in the new place there were as many as three ghosts. And at the beginning of 1931, the Durrells moved to Bournemouth, although not for long either Here they tried to send Jerry to school, but he instantly hated this institution. Whenever his mother started getting him ready for school, he hid. And when they found him, he clung to the furniture howling, not wanting to leave the house. Eventually his temperature rose and he was put to bed. Louise just shrugged: “If Jerry doesn’t want to study, so be it. Education is not the main key to happiness.”

Dream Island

It wasn't just Gerald who felt uncomfortable in Bournemouth. Unaccustomed to the cold English climate, the other Durrells fully shared his sentiments. Suffering without sun and warmth, they decided to move to Corfu. “I felt as if I had been transported from the cliffs of Bournemouth to heaven,” Gerald recalled. There was no gas or electricity on the island, but there were more than enough living creatures. Under every stone, in every crack. A real gift of fate! Enthusiastic Jerry even stopped resisting his studies. He got a teacher, Theo Stefanidis, an eccentric local doctor. Larry's older brother considered him a dangerous person; he gave the boy a microscope and spent hours telling him about the difficult life of praying mantises and frogs. As a result, there were so many living creatures in the house that the “bug infestation,” as Jerry’s family called it, began to spread throughout the house, causing shock among the household. One day, a scorpion lady with a bunch of little scorpions on her back appeared from a matchbox lying on the mantelpiece, which Larry took to light a cigarette. And Leslie almost got into the bath without noticing that she was already busy with the snakes.

To instill in his student the basics of mathematics, Theo had to write problems like: “If a caterpillar eats fifty leaves a day, how many leaves will three caterpillars eat in ?” However, despite all the teacher’s tricks, Gerald was not seriously interested in anything except zoology. Subsequently, numerous admirers of Durrell found it difficult to believe that the famous writer and naturalist was actually a person without education. The fact remains a fact, although learning to feel and understand the animal world is impossible in any university in the world. You have to be born with this gift.

One night, when Jerry went down to the sea to swim, he suddenly found himself in the middle of a school of dolphins. They squeaked, sang, dived and played with each other. The boy was overcome by a strange feeling of unity with them, with the island, with everything alive that is on Earth. Later it seemed to him that it was that night that he understood: man does not have the power to weave the web of life. He is just her string. “I leaned out of the water and watched them swim along the bright lunar path, then emerging to the surface, then with a blissful sigh going back under the water, warm as fresh milk,” Darrell recalled. Even in old age, this man with eternally smiling blue eyes, gray hair and looking like Santa Claus because of his lush beard, could explode like a powder keg, as soon as he felt that his interlocutor considered man the crown of creation, free to do whatever he wanted with nature. he pleases. In 1939, clouds began to gather over the Greek island and war began. After staying in Corfu for five unforgettable years, the Durrells were forced to return to England. They arrived in company with three dogs, a toad, three turtles, six canaries, four goldfinches, two magpies, a seagull, a pigeon and an owl. And Corfu forever remained for Gerald part of a huge world, much more than just a memory of a serene childhood. In Corfu, in his dreams, cicadas sang and the groves turned green, but in reality, bombs were falling. Italian troops set up a tent camp around the villa abandoned by the Durrells. Thank God Jerry didn't see it.

To this day, the house of the Darrell family, in which they lived for 5 years, has been preserved on the island of Corfu.

First expedition

In 1942, Jerry was drafted into the army. A convinced cosmopolitan, he was not eager to defend his homeland, especially since he did not consider England as such. At the medical examination, the doctor asked him: “Tell me honestly, do you want to go into the army?” “At that moment I realized that only the truth could save me,” Darrell recalled, and therefore answered: “No, sir.” “Are you a coward?” “Yes, sir!” I reported without hesitation. “Me too,” nodded the doctor. I don’t think they would need a coward. Get out. It takes a lot of courage to admit to being a coward. Good luck, guy."

Jerry needed some luck. He had no diploma and no desire to get one either. There was only one thing left to do: go to unskilled, low-paid work. A job came up as a duty officer at the London Zoological Society's Whipsnade Zoo. The work is exhausting, Jerry ironically said that his position is called “animal boy.” However, this did not depress him at all, because he was among animals.

When Darrell turned 21, he inherited £3,000 in his father's will. This was a chance to change fate, which Jerry neglected, without hesitation investing this rather decent amount into the expedition.

On December 14, 1947, Darrell and his partner, ornithologist John Yelland, sailed from Liverpool to Africa. Arriving in Cameroon, Jerry felt like a kid in a candy store. “For several days after my arrival, I was definitely under the influence of drugs,” he recalled. Like a schoolboy, I began to catch everything that surrounded me frogs, wood lice, centipedes. I returned to the hotel loaded with cans and boxes and sorted out my trophies until three in the morning.”

Seven months of stay in Cameroon completely consumed all my funds. Jerry had to urgently telegraph his family to send money: the most difficult stage of the expedition lay ahead - the return home. The animals had to be transported to the coast, and food had to be provided for them for the journey.

The arrival of Durrell’s “ark” was noticed by the press, but for some reason not by representatives of zoos, despite the fact that he brought from Cameroon a rare animal, the Angwantibo, which no European menagerie had.

Back to Africa

In the winter of 1949, this “animal maniac,” as his family called him, having obtained money, went to Cameroon again. In the village of Mamfe, luck smiled on him - he caught thirty rare flying dormouse. The next stop was a flat area called Bafut. A local official told Jerry that Bafut was ruled by a certain Fon, whose favor can only be won in one way - to prove that you can drink as much as he does. Gerald passed the test with honor, and the next day the animals were brought to him. In all of Bafut the next morning everyone knew that the white guest needed animals. The inspired naturalist bargained tirelessly, put together cages, and placed animals in them. A few days later, the joy diminished: it seemed that there would be no end to the flow of people. The situation was becoming catastrophic. Just like on the previous expedition, Darrell had no choice but to send a telegram home asking for help: he had nothing to buy food for the animals. To feed the animals, he even sold his gun. With the cages placed on the ship, Darrell could finally rest. But it was not there. Another adventure awaited him. Not far from the port, they were digging a drainage ditch and accidentally came across a snake hole full of Gibon vipers. Time was running out - the ship had to sail the next morning. Darrell went after the snakes at night. A trapper armed with a spear was lowered into a ditch using a rope. There were about thirty snakes in the hole. Half an hour later, Gerald, who had lost his flashlight and right shoe, was pulled upstairs. His hands were shaking, but twelve vipers were swarming in the bag.

The trip cost Darrell £2,000. Having sold all the animals, he gained only four hundred. Well, that's already something. It's time to prepare for the third expedition. True, this time zoos willingly gave him advances for orders, because Darrell became a well-known trapper.

A muse named Jackie

To negotiate an order from Belle Vue Zoo, Gerald had to travel to Manchester. Here he settled in a small hotel, owned by John Wolfenden. At this time, Sadler's Wells Theater was touring the city and the hotel was full of ballerinas from the corps de ballet. All of them were captivated by the blue-eyed trapper. In his absence, they chattered about him incessantly, which greatly intrigued Jackie, Wolfenden's nineteen-year-old daughter. “One rainy day, the peace of our living room was disturbed by a cascade of female figures pouring into it, dragging a young man with them. Judging by the ridiculous antics of the escort, it could only be Wonder Boy himself. He immediately stared at me like a basilisk,” Jackie recalled.

Two weeks later, Darrell’s “business trip” ended, and calm reigned in the hotel. Jackie stopped thinking about him, becoming seriously interested in her vocal lessons. The girl had a good voice and hoped to become an opera singer. But soon Darrell showed up at the hotel again. This time the reason for his visit was Jackie. He invited the girl to a restaurant and they talked for several hours. Next to her, he wanted to stop time.

But the next expedition attracted no less than the inquisitive researcher. Throughout the six months of his stay in British Guiana, Gerald remembered his beloved: both when he was catching a moonfish in the town with the sonorous name of Adventure, and when he was chasing a giant anteater across the Rupununi savannah. “Usually, when traveling, I forgot about everyone, but this little face persistently haunted me. And then I thought: why did I forget about everyone and everything except her?

The answer suggested itself. Returning to England, he immediately rushed to Manchester. However, suddenly a serious obstacle appeared on the path of their romantic relationship. Jackie's father was against this marriage: a guy from a dubious family wanders around the world, he has no money, and it is unlikely that he ever will. Without receiving the consent of the girl’s father, Gerald left home, and Mr. Wolfenden breathed a sigh of relief. But the love story didn't end there. At the end of February 1951, when Mr Wolfenden was away for a few days on business, Gerry rushed back to Manchester. He decided to steal Jackie. Frantically packing her things, they eloped to Bournemouth and were married three days later. Jackie's father never forgave her for this prank, and they never saw each other again. The newlyweds settled in the house of Jerry's sister Margaret in a small room. Darrell tried to get a job at the zoo again, but nothing came of this venture.

And then one day, listening to a certain author read his story on the radio, Darrell began to mercilessly criticize him. “If you can write it better, do it,” Jackie said. What nonsense, he's not a writer. Time passed, the lack of money became stressful, and Jerry gave up. The story of how a trapper hunted a hairy frog was soon completed and sent to the BBC. He was accepted and paid 15 guineas. Soon Darrell read his story on the radio.

Encouraged by his success, Gerald sat down to write a novel about his African adventures. Within a few weeks, The Overloaded Ark was written. The book was accepted for publication by the publishing house Faber and Faber. It came out in the summer of 1953 and immediately became an event. Jerry decided to spend his fee on a new expedition to Argentina and Paraguay. While Jackie was purchasing equipment, he was hastily finishing a new novel, “The Hounds of Bafut.” Darrell was convinced that he was no writer. And every time Jackie persuaded him to sit him down at the typewriter. But since people buy this writing...

The difficult role of the wife

In the South American pampas, Jackie began to understand what it meant to be a trapper's wife. One day they caught a palemedea chick. Jerry was exhausted with him - the chick did not want to eat anything. He finally showed some interest in spinach and Jackie had to chew spinach for him several times a day. In Paraguay, she shared her bed with Sarah, a baby anteater, and a newborn armadillo. Having lost their mothers, the little animals could catch a cold. “My objections did not stop Jerry from bringing various animals to my bed. What can compare to a mattress wet with animal urine? You can’t help but feel that the whole world is your family,” Jackie ironized in her memoirs, which she called “Beasts in My Bed.”

Their camp in the village of Puerto Casado was packed with collected animals when revolution broke out in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. The Durrell couple were forced to leave the country. The animals had to be released into the wild. From this expedition the trapper brought nothing but impressions. But they were precisely what Darrell came in handy when, upon returning to England, he sat down to write a new novel, “Under the Canopy of the Drunken Forest,” about Argentina and Paraguay. After finishing the novel, Jerry suddenly fell ill with jaundice. He lay in a small room in Margaret's house, unable to even go down to the living room, and with nothing to do, he began to indulge in memories of his childhood. The result of the “jaundiced imprisonment” was the novel “My Family and Other Animals” the best of all created by Darrell. This work was included in the compulsory school curriculum in Great Britain.

Your own zoo

The royalties for “My Family” were spent on a third trip to Cameroon, to see Fon. For the first time, Gerald did not enjoy the expedition. He missed his old adventurous life, but the main reason for Gerald's depression was that he and Jackie no longer understood each other. Darrell started drinking. Jackie found the cure for boredom. What if they don't sell animals to zoos, but create their own? Jerry shrugged his shoulders listlessly. To buy land, build buildings on it, hire employees, you need at least 10 thousand pounds, where can you get it? But Jackie insisted. What if she's right? His heart always bleeds when he has to part with captured animals. And so Jerry told the newspapers that he had brought this batch of animals for himself and that he hoped to set up his own zoo, preferably in Bournemouth, and expressed the hope that the city council would react favorably to this idea and give him a plot of land, otherwise his animals would become homeless children.

In the meantime, he placed the animals with his sister. Margot stood helplessly on the porch of her house, watching as animal cages were unloaded from a truck onto her neat emerald lawn. Jerry, who jumped out of the cab, gave his sister his charming smile and promised that it would only be for a week, maybe two, until the authorities allocated space for a zoo. Winter passed, but no one was going to offer Jerry a place for a zoo.

Finally, he was lucky: the owner of the huge Ogre Manor estate on the island of Jersey was renting out the family nest. Having visited the island, Darrell was delighted: there was simply no better place for a zoo. Having signed the lease agreement, he sailed with peace of mind on his next expedition to Argentina to film a film for the BBC. Jerry dreamed of seeing with his own eyes the inhabitants of Valdez Island - fur seals and elephants. They found the seals quickly, but for some reason there were no elephant seals. “If you hadn’t admired the seals for so long, the elephants wouldn’t have swam away,” Jackie pressed her husband. Jerry kicked the pebbles angrily. One of the pebbles hit a huge brown boulder. “Boulder” sighed and opened his big sad eyes. It turns out that the couple were sorting things out right in the middle of an elephant rookery.

Jackie managed to forget the insult and began to arrange an apartment in the Ogre estate. Hammers were pounding throughout the estate as the zoo prepared to open. In Ogre Manor, everything should be subordinated to the convenience of the animals, not the visitors. Darrell wanted everyone to experience at least once in their life what he experienced in Corfu, surrounded by dolphins. Jackie's dreams were more modest. She hoped that no more animals would appear in her bed. But it was not there. Their apartment in Ogre Manor was soon filled with a variety of animals - weakened cubs or animals simply caught with colds that needed warmth and care.

The zoo, which opened in March 1959, did not pay for itself. Jerry admitted to Jackie that his administrative “talent” belonged in the trash heap. The couple were in a strict economy mode: the nuts that visitors dropped near the cages while feeding the monkeys in the evenings were collected and repackaged, the boards for the cages were obtained from the nearest landfill, they bought rotten vegetables on the cheap, and then carefully cut out the rot from the fruits, barely anywhere. then a horse or a cow died nearby, and the “ogremanors”, who instantly found out about this, rushed there, armed with knives and bags: you can’t feed predators with fruits. Darrell had no time to write. So Jackie had to take the reins into her own hands. She ruled the zoo with an iron fist, and gradually the “animal estate” began to emerge from the crisis.

Meanwhile, Darrell and Jackie grew increasingly distant from each other. “I feel like I married a zoo,” Mrs. Darrell liked to say. At one time, Jackie hoped that the birth of a child would bring them closer, but after the operation she underwent, she could not have children. Jerry surrounded her with care, trying in every possible way to dispel her sadness. As soon as Jackie recovered, the Durrells, taking with them a BBC film crew, set off on another expedition to Australia, where they managed to film unique footage of the birth of a kangaroo.

A sad encounter with childhood

In the summer of 1968, Gerald and Jackie went to Corfu to take a break from their "menagerie". Before leaving, Darrell was somewhat depressed. “It’s always risky to return to places where you were once happy,” he explained to Jackie. Corfu must have changed a lot. But the color and transparency of the sea cannot be changed. And this is exactly what I need now.” Jackie was delighted to hear that her husband wanted to go to Corfu; lately he had said that he felt like he was in a cage in Ogre Manor. I sat locked up for weeks, not even wanting to go out to the zoo to look at my animals.

They had already visited Corfu a year earlier, when the BBC decided to film the film Garden of the Gods on the island, based on Durrell's novel of the same name about his childhood. Gerald nearly disrupted filming several times: he was enraged by the plastic bottles and pieces of paper lying everywhere Corfu was no longer a pristine Eden.

Joyful Jackie was packing her bags. That time, filming prevented Jerry from enjoying the nature of Corfu, now everything will be different, he will return home a different person. But upon arriving on the island, Jackie realized that Corfu was the last place in the world where she should have taken her despondent husband. The coast was overgrown with hotels, and cement trucks roamed around Corfu, the sight of which made Darrell tremble. He began to burst into tears for no apparent reason, drink a lot, and once told Jackie that he felt an almost irresistible desire to commit suicide. The island was his heart, and now they were driving piles into this heart and filling it with cement. Darrell felt guilty, because it was he who wrote all these sunny books about his childhood: “My Family...”, “Birds, Beasts and Relatives” and “Garden of the Gods”, after the release of which tourists flocked to the Greek islands. Jackie took her husband to England, where he went to a private clinic for three weeks to be treated for depression and alcoholism. After his discharge, he and Jackie broke up.

The woman is simply a goddess

In the early seventies, a conspiracy was hatched within the Jersey Wildlife Trust, which Darrell had founded, to remove him from membership, effectively removing him from the management of the zoo and the Trust. Gerald was seething with rage. Who found the money to buy a male gorilla when the Foundation didn't have a penny? Who went straight to the richest man in Jersey and asked him for money in exchange for a promise to name a gorilla after the rich man? Who visited the wives of the powers that be when a Reptile House or something had to be built at the zoo, and received checks from them? Who found powerful patrons for the Foundation - Princess Anne of England and Princess Grace of Monaco?

And although Gerald managed to remain in his post and form a new council, this story cost him a lot of nerves

In the summer of 1977, Darrell traveled around America. He lectured and raised money for his Foundation. In North Carolina, at a gala hosted by Duke University in his honor, he met 27-year-old Lee McGeorge. After graduating from the Faculty of Zoology, she studied the behavior of lemurs in Madagascar for two years, and when she returned, she sat down to write her dissertation. “When she spoke, I stared at her in surprise. A beautiful woman who studies animals is simply a goddess!” Darrell recalled. They talked until night. When it came to talking about the habits of animals, the interlocutors began to squeak, snort and grunt, clearly illustrating their words, which shocked the venerable professors.

Before leaving for England, Darrell wrote a letter to Lee, ending with the words: “You are the man I need.” Then he scolded himself for a long time - what nonsense! He is fifty-two, and she is young, and besides, she has a fiancé. Or maybe we should still try to catch this “animal”? Just what kind of bait? Well, of course, he has a zoo. He wrote a letter to Lee offering to work for the Jersey Foundation, and she accepted. “I was overwhelmed with joy, it seemed to me that I had caught a rainbow,” recalled Darrell, who was in love.

From India, where this restless wanderer went, he wrote her long love letters, more like prose poems. The rosy mood gave way to bouts of melancholy, he was tormented by doubts, Lee hesitated, not daring to break up with her fiancé.

They married in May 1979. Lee was open with him - she admires him, but doesn't love him. And yet, the dark streak in the master’s life ended. They traveled around the world, collecting animals or giving lectures, and when they wanted peace, they returned to Ogre Manor.

Darrell never knew how to be alone. So, his “darling McGeorge,” as he calls his wife, is with him. The foundation and zoo are thriving. The captive breeding program for endangered species is being successfully implemented. When journalists ask him what he does to make his charges reproduce, he jokes: “At night I walk around their cages and read the Kama Sutra to them.”

Worldwide recognition

He liked to walk around the zoo early in the morning when there were no visitors. And then some young man greets him. “Who is this, minister?” For some reason he hadn't noticed it before. Well, of course, this is someone from “Darrell’s army.”

That's what his students call themselves. They adore their teacher and can recite entire chapters from his books by heart. How often did he hear: “You see, sir, after reading your novel as a child, I decided to become a zoologist and devote my life to saving animals...” Yes, he now has students, he is essentially an ignoramus. It was he who created a training center in Jersey where students from different countries could study captive breeding.

In 1984, the zoo's 25th anniversary was celebrated with pomp in Jersey. Princess Anne, on behalf of the staff, presented him with a gift of a silver matchbox with a golden scorpion inside, so similar to the living one that scared Larry many years ago.

In October 1984, Lee and Gerald flew to the Soviet Union to film the documentary Durrell in Russia. He wanted to see with his own eyes what was being done in the USSR to preserve endangered species. Moscow seemed gray and dreary to him. The writer was endlessly surprised to learn that in this distant country he was a cult figure. His Russian admirers, as well as his students, quoted entire paragraphs from his novels, only, of course, in Russian. “The Russians remind me of the Greeks,” Darrell wrote in his diary, “with their endless toasts and willingness to kiss. I've kissed more men in the last three weeks than Oscar Wilde did in his entire life. They all try to kiss Lee too, and this once again convinces me that the communists need an eye and an eye.”

When Darrell was transported all night by train from Moscow to the Darwin Nature Reserve, he surprised his entourage with his strong head, sharing vodka with them in the compartment as equals until the morning.

Epilogue

In the fall of 1990, Darrell made his last trip to Madagascar to catch a rare aye-aye. But camp life was no longer a joy for him. He was forced to sit in the camp, suffering from arthritic pain, while his young and healthy companions hunted for the little arm.

In the early nineties, the writer was beset by illness. And in March 1994, he underwent a serious liver transplant operation. “I didn’t marry for love,” Lee recalled, “but when I realized that I could lose him, I truly loved him and told him about it. He was amazed because I hadn’t uttered these words for so long.” The operation was successful, but general blood poisoning began. Lee transported him to Jersey, to a local clinic.

On January 30, 1995, Gerald Durrell passed away. He was buried in the garden of the Ogre estate. The Jersey Foundation was renamed the Durrell Foundation. The atheist Gerald, already seriously ill, was not averse to thinking about what awaited him on the other side. A school of dolphins swimming away along a lunar path - how often this picture appeared before his mind's eye. Perhaps, as he wanted, he became one of them in order to sail away and find his own island, which no one would ever find.

Natalia Borzenko

12 July 2011, 14:51

Gerald Malcolm Durrell(eng. Gerald Malcolm Durrell), OBE (7 January 1925, Jamshedpur, British India - 30 January 1995, St Helier, Jersey) - English naturalist, zoologist, writer, founder of the Jersey Zoo and the Wildlife Trust, which are now bear his name. Gerald Durrell was born on January 7, 1925 in the Indian city of Jamshedpur.
The Durrell family outside their home in Corfu He was the fourth and youngest child of British civil engineer Lawrence Samuel Durrell and his wife Louise Florence Durrell (née Dixie). According to relatives, at the age of two, Gerald fell ill with “zoomania,” and his mother recalled that one of his first words was “zoo” (zoo). In 1928, after the death of their father, the family moved to England, and seven years later - on the advice of older brother Gerald Lawrence - to the Greek island of Corfu. Gerald Durrell in Bafut There were few real educators among Gerald Durrell's first home teachers. The only exception was the naturalist Theodore Stephanides (1896-1983). It was from him that Gerald received his first knowledge of zoology. Stephanides appears more than once on the pages of Gerald Durrell's most famous book, the novel My Family and Other Animals. The book “The Amateur Naturalist” (1982) is also dedicated to him. In 1939 (after the outbreak of World War II), Gerald and his family returned to England and got a job in one of the London pet stores. But the real start of Darrell's research career was his work at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. Gerald got a job here immediately after the war as a “student caretaker,” or “animal boy,” as he called himself. It was here that he received his first professional training and began collecting a “dossier” containing information about rare and endangered species of animals (and this was 20 years before the appearance of the International Red Book). In 1947, Gerald Durrell, having reached adulthood (21 years old), received part of his father's inheritance. With this money, he organized three expeditions - two to British Cameroon (1947-1949) and one to British Guiana (1950). These expeditions do not bring profit, and in the early 50s Gerald finds himself without a livelihood and work.
The famous Cameroonian King Fon, with whom Gerald got drunk Not a single zoo in Australia, the USA or Canada could offer him a position. At this time, Lawrence Durrell, Gerald's older brother, advises him to take up his pen, especially since “the English love books about animals.” Gerald's first story, “The Hunt for the Hairy Frog,” was an unexpected success; the author was even invited to speak on the radio. His first book, The Overloaded Ark (1953), was about a trip to Cameroon and received rave reviews from both readers and critics. The author was noticed by major publishers, and the royalties for The Overloaded Ark and Gerald Durrell's second book, Three Singles To Adventure (1954), allowed him to organize an expedition to South America in 1954. However, at that time there was a military coup in Paraguay, and almost the entire collection of animals had to be left there. Darrell described his impressions of this trip in his next book, “Under the Canopy of the Drunken Forest” (The Drunken Forest, 1955). At the same time, at the invitation of Lawrence, Gerald Durrell vacationed in Corfu. Familiar places evoked a lot of childhood memories - this is how the famous “Greek” trilogy appeared: “My Family and Other Animals” (1956), “Birds, Beasts and Relatives” (1969) and “The Garden of the Gods” (The Gardens) of The Gods, 1978). The first book of the trilogy was a wild success. In the UK alone, My Family and Other Animals was reprinted 30 times, and in the USA 20 times. Sculpture at the Jersey Zoo In total, Gerald Durrell wrote more than 30 books (almost all of them were translated into dozens of languages) and directed 35 films. The debut four-part television film To Bafut With Beagles (BBC), released in 1958, was very popular in England. Thirty years later, Darrell managed to film in the Soviet Union, with active participation and assistance from the Soviet side. The result was the thirteen-episode film “Durrell in Russia” (also shown on Channel 1 of USSR television in 1986-88) and the book “Durrell in Russia” (not officially translated into Russian). In the USSR, Darrell's books were published repeatedly and in large editions. In 1959, Darrell created a zoo on the island of Jersey, and in 1963, the Jersey Wildlife Conservation Trust was organized on the basis of the zoo. Darrell's main idea was to breed rare and endangered species of animals in a zoo with the aim of further resettling them in their natural habitats. This idea has now become a generally accepted scientific concept. If it were not for the Jersey Trust, many animal species would survive only as stuffed animals in museums. Gerald Durrell died on January 30, 1995, of blood poisoning, nine months after a liver transplant, at age 71. In total, Gerald Durrell wrote 37 books. Of these, 26 were translated into Russian. 1953 - “The Overloaded Ark” 1954 - “Three Singles To Adventure” 1954 - “The Bafut Beagles” 1955 - “The new Noah” 1955 - “ Under the canopy of the drunken forest" (The Drunken Forest) 1956 - "My Family and Other Animals" (1960 - "A Zoo in My Luggage" 1961 - "Zoos" (Look At Zoos) ) was not translated into Russian 1961 - “The Whispering Land” 1964 - “Menagerie Manor” 1966 - “The Way of the Kangaroo” / “Two in the Bush” 1968 - “Donkey Thieves” "(The Donkey Rustlers) 1968 - "Rosy Is My Relative" 1969 - "Birds, Beasts And Relatives" (Birds, Beasts And Relatives) 1971 - "Halibut Fillet" / "Flounder Fillet" ( Fillets of Plaice) 1972 - “Catch Me A Colobus” 1973 - “Beasts In My Belfry” 1974 - “The Talking Parcel” 1976 - “Ark on the Island” The Stationary Ark) 1977 - “Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons” 1978 - “The Garden of the Gods” 1979 - “The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium” 1981 - “The mockery bird” 1982 - “The Amateur Naturalist” was not translated into Russian 1982 - “Ark on the Move” was not translated into Russian 1984 - “The Naturalist in fly" (How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist) 1986 - "Durrell in Russia" (Durrell in Russia) has not been officially translated into Russian (there is an amateur translation) 1990 - "The Ark's Anniversary" 1991 - "Mother of marriageable age "(Marrying Off Mother) 1992 - “The Aye-aye and I” Awards and prizes 1956 - Member of the International Institute of Arts and Letters 1974 - Member of the Institute of Biology in London 1976 - Honorary Diploma of the Argentine Society for the Protection of Animals 1977 - Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Yale University 1981 - Officer of the Order of the Golden Ark 1982 - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) 1988 - Honorary DSc, Emeritus Professor, Durham University 1988 - Richard Hooper Day Medal - Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1989 - Honorary DSc, University of Kent, Canterbury 26 March 1999 - Gerald Durrell's Jersey Zoo was renamed Jersey Zoo on its 40th anniversary Durrell Wildlife Park and the Jersey Wildlife Trust into the Durrell Wildlife Trust Jersey Zoo Animal species and subspecies named after Gerald Durrell Clarkeia durrelli- a fossil Upper Silurian brachiopod from the order Atrypida, discovered in 1982 (however, there is no exact information that it was named in honor of Gerald Durrell). Nactus serpeninsula durrelli- a subspecies of the nocturnal snake gecko from Round Island (part of the island state of Mauritius). Named in honor of Gerald and Lee Durrell for their contribution to the conservation of this species and the fauna of Round Island in general. Mauritius has issued a stamp featuring this gecko.
Ceylonthelphusa durrelli- a very rare freshwater crab from the island of Sri Lanka. Benthophilus durrelli- a fish from the goby family, discovered in 2004. Kotchevnik durrelli- a moth from the carpenter family, discovered in Armenia and described in 2004. Mahea durrelli- Madagascar bug from the family of tree stink bugs. Described in 2005. Centrolene durrellorum- a tree frog from the family of glass frogs. Found in Ecuador in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Discovered in 2002, described in 2005. Named in honor of Gerald and Lee Durrell "for their contribution to the conservation of global biodiversity." Salanoia durrelli(Darrell's Mungo) is a mongoose-like animal from the family of Madagascar predators. It lives in Madagascar in the coastal zone of Lake Alaotra. The species was found and described in 2010.

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