This is a great book for all those who have a special place in their hearts for animals. Gerald Durrell takes us through his experiences in setting up a zoo in Jersey. It is a marvelous book full of humor. It sends out a message about saving wildlife. So, even if you are not the one to start a zoo, this book is a must read for you!

Gerald Durrell was the first to claim that he was not a writer, he gave that honour up to his brother Lawerence. Gerald wrote first and foremost to pay for the Zoo in Jersey that was his life. Many of his books are hilarious accounts of his exploits in collecting the animals for his zoo. When he added an account of his youth in Corfu the book "My family and other animals" became a huge success, much to his surprise. It was some time before he wrote the absolutely hilarous "Rosie is my relative" which was his first work of true fiction. In this book I believe he reaches the pinnacle of his ability. Not as bellyachingly funny as "Rosie" this book is more poignant and very beautifully written. It is more poignant since it describes the rediscovery of the Mockery Bird which is a metaphor for the Dodo, that most famous of extinct species. Durrell fought all his life to save species from extinction and so I think that there is a special hope in his heart that emerges in this book. A hope for the future of animals.

Soaked in the sunshine of Corfu, the author of this book recalls his hillarious experiences as a boy. He discovers animals in the country and finds the piculliar habits of both animals and people, Including Spiro , Widdle Puke and his family. They go to the north of Corfu and buy a villa which sets of all kinds of other hillarious problems. A must for all ages !

I particularly like Gerald Durrell's books because of his humor. I lent it to my sick friend and she laughed so hard she got better. My mom has to yank it away from me before I listen when she wants something done. I am sure you will buy up the whole series when you read one of his books. Be patient at first and then it gets better.

As all books of this author this one is wtitten with a lot of humour and love to animals. It's simply must read book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, being already more than sold on the value proposition presented by lemurs of all shapes and sizes. I'm convinced that the lemur is destined to become the most popular primate of the millenium, and this book should be at the top of the charts for those wishing to catch the rising tide of lemur fanatics. The San Francisco Zoo's new Lipman Family Lemur Forest exhibit presents two of only twelve Aye-ayes in the United States, and having visited it recently I now plan to return next weekend to apply the newfound in-depth Aye-aye background I've gleaned from my reading of this book. Moreover, lemurs are but the tip of the iceberg here! Rife with hilarious descriptions of Giant Jumping rats, tortoises, and grubs of all shapes and sizes, Durrell's personal tone, dry wit, and entertaining presentation kept me amused and reading until the wee hours of the morn. I'll be seeking out more of his works, and would happily recommend this to anyone with an interest in lemurs, obscure regions of the world, travel, conservation, the Aye-aye, and furry or reptilian critters, period.

This book was absolutely fabulous. As a college student interested in someday studying aye-ayes in the forests of Madagascar, reading this book was sheer pleasure. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested at all in lemurs, Madagascar, or simply in animal anecdotes or conservation.

Durrell's writing brings the reader behind the scenes in this awesome and mystical country. Travel to unexplored villages and rainforests and expirence life in the cities. Awe inspiring indeed.

When his literary brother Lawerence Durrell (the Alexandra Quartet) compiled a book of stray writings he brought them together under the title "Spirit of Place" as they revolved around the mediterranean spirit. When the irrereverent younger brother Gerald decided to trawl his notes for a new book to fund his zoo in Jersey he jokingly suggested to Lawerence that he could call it "Fillets of Plaice", being a low caste version of his brothers book. The name stuck and this book contains some wonderful and evocative stories. Best of all I think are the two horror stories at the end. I never realised Gerald had such a dark side.

Well, I may have mangled the quote for this review's title but I am right about the rating of this book. This was such a good book that I actually felt a bit sad after turning the last page! Many of the encounters in this book of short stories shares the same wit, keen observation, and gentle spirit of My Family and Other Animals . . .then there are a few surprises. There are two chapters recalling incidents that must have been decidedly unpleasant and yet he managed to make them uproariously funny! I'd like to say more but it wouldn't be fair to go into too much detail.

Douglas Botting makes a fairly good job of Durrell's biography. Lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, with numerous quotations from Durrell's personal notebooks thrown in for good measure,this book sheds a new light on the life of one of the most amazing men of the 20th century. However, this book is recommended for Durrell fans, and not for the plain inquisitive who want to bone up on the life and times of Gerald Durrell.They would do better to stick to the Gerald Durrell accounts .The author has a tendency of repeating parts of the Durrell accounts in his own words,and relying too much on the Durrell works as his guide( but then again it is difficult to pick up the thread of people and events as many as 50 years later, with a world war inbetween ). All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable 600-pager that Durrell fans will devour in no time at all. Judging by this one,the Gavin Maxwell biography should be well worth reading ..

This must be one of the best biographies I have read about anyone. Douglas Botting is to be congratulated on his meticulous research and unbiased approach. He gives us a wonderful insight into this complex man's extraordinary life. All 607 pages are highly readable and I found it hard to put the book down. I particularly enjoyed the account of Durrell's happy go lucky, unconventional childhood in Greece surrounded by his mad mad family. As Gerald Durrell would have wanted, there is a lively quality about the telling of his story. There were so many facets to this man's character and Botting has been at pains to dig deep to bring these to the fore. Having read Durrell's books many years ago I found myself enjoying the adventures of his life all over again, but in a different way, now that I understand more about the man and his background. I feel this is a 'must' read for anyone who has enjoyed Gerald Durrell's books

I always thought of Gerry Durrell as my own secret discovery, and gave copies of his books to all my friends. Also visited the Jersey Trust twice....well worth it. This book reads like the diary of an old and dear friend, sharing much and explaining a lot. He was ahead of us all in his love for the endangered earth and its living creatures.

First of all - you have to rememebr that this book was written several decades ago...and that things ahve changed a lot since then in Africa.

The scenery is graphicaly portrayed - and the incidents that occur in Durrell's animal collecting adventures are classic Durrell humour!

A great book for anyone who loves African animals with fantastic descriptions not only of the animals - but also their temprements and traits!

A good read for a rainy day.....

This book was published in 1954 and I guess that the actual collecting trip must have been in the late 40s. The Africa presented here is a weird mixture of Hollywood movie and anthropological journal. Durrell is quite respectful of the Africans and their culture, but this doesn't prevent him from sitting down and getting repeatedly sloshed with the local king. On the one hand, Durrell never refers to the people of Bafut as savages or anything overtly pejorative, but the 'Bafut beagles' of the title refers to both the mongrel dogs that help him to collect animals and the Bafut hunters themselves. He recounts telling off the hunters for being superstitious, but he never comes close to stereotyping these people. He communicates with the people of Bafut in pidgin English, which is at first a bit difficult to read, but after you get used to its conventions, makes a lot of sense.

Durrell's affection for Africa, its people and the animals that live there permeate this narrative. I am left wondering how similar or different Cameroons is 50 years later. The descriptions of the landscapes and the various animals that are collected contain just enough detail for you to form a picture in your mind, but not so much as to make the picture too literal and therefore somehow limited.

I believe that this was Durrell's first book. If so, I can imagine that he won an immediate audience for his subsequent books if only because his self-description is so winning. He presents himself in a classic Edwardian combination of self-deprecating humor, occasional bumbling, eccentricity, earthiness, but finally practicality and capability. I grew to like him more and more as the book progressed and look forward to meeting him again in later books. He returns to Bafut with his wife in A Zoo In My Luggage.

I loved this and only wish I could also get it in print. Though things have no doubt changed in Africa, there are no doubt still funny stories and people there as on any other continent, and I'm glad Mr. Durrell chronicled these.

This is the only book I've read by Gerald Durrell and it is great! The stories are so wonderfully told with a combination of keen human insight and the ability to laugh at it. He had a wonderful talent for descriptive writing. You can almost taste the dinner he writes about. Most of the stories are short and relatively light in nature, but be prepared for the last story in the book. It's the longest, so set aside a long evening and arrange for no interruptions because you will not be able to stop until you finish.