Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Three Singles to Adventure by Gerald Durrell

 
First Line: The following book is an account of a trip I made to British Guiana during 1950 with my partner, Kenneth Smith.
 
In 1950, Gerald Durrell set off for British Guiana (now Guyana) to collect native wildlife and bring it back to his Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust and other zoos. It was a journey filled with adventures of all sorts of landscapes and wildlife. Monkeys, sloths, piranhas, ill-tempered anacondas, and an anteater determined to escape-- Durrell experienced them all and more.
 
~
 
Being in need of an exotic locale and unfamiliar wildlife, I turned to one of the best sources for both: Gerald Durrell. When starting out on their adventures in Guyana, Durrell and his partners discovered that there was a place named Adventure, and none of them could resist: they went to the train station and asked for Three Singles to Adventure.

When reading Durrell's memoirs about his travels collecting wildlife, readers get a good idea of how to collect, care for, and transport animals to zoos. Once an animal is captured, the work has only just begun for these people. But this is probably the weakest of the reasons to read this and others of Durrell's memoirs. What sticks with me most are his anecdotes. How charming and lovable tree porcupines are. How an overly affectionate bird named Cuthbert loved to lay across everyone's feet. 

Durrell can also have readers laughing when he tells us "...how difficult it is to explain to a policeman why you are carrying a capybara through the streets at one o'clock in the morning." I wouldn't want to explain that either. But where this man can have me absolutely enthralled is when I read his descriptions of the landscape. In Guyana, I was with him in the canoe as it swept beneath orchid-decorated trees and eased through carpets of water lilies while the air vibrated with gold, blue, green, scarlet, and bronze dragonflies. I also found myself with a teary eye and a smile on my face as he described a group of dirty, tattooed, tough-as-old-boots merchant seamen who would make daily trips to the hold to watch the birth and development of tadpoles.

I greatly enjoyed my time with Durrell in Guyana, and I'm already wondering where he and I will be going next.

Three Singles to Adventure by Gerald Durrell
eISBN: 9781504042857
Open Road Integrated Media © 2017
Originally published 1954.
eBook, 177 pages

Memoirs
Rating: B+
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

8 comments:

  1. This one really sounds so interesting, Cathy! I'm already intrigued by the idea of learning about all the different animals and plant life and so on. And I've always learned more from anecdotes than from simply narrating facts. I'm very glad, although not surprised, that you were drawn into this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does seem to be right down my alley, doesn't it? ;-)

      Delete
  2. A place named Adventure? That's awesome! I do love a good travel memoir, and I haven't read any in quite awhile. THis one does sound really fun. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have enjoyed some of Durrell's works in the past and this one does sound interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's one of my favorites of his books that I've read.

      Delete
  4. I have a different Durrell that I picked up at a used bookstore waiting patiently on my TBR shelf (unless it's actually in one of the piles ...). This is a good reminder of what interested me in his writing.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to make a comment. I really appreciate it!