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.

 

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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.

Rosy Is My Relative by Gerald Durrell

 

First Line: Unaware that doom was overtaking him, Adrian Rookwhistle, in his shirt sleeves, was occupied in making faces at himself in his looking-glass.

 

Adrian Rookwhistle is a young man who's led an extremely quiet, circumscribed life, and his thirst for adventure is slaked when his uncle dies and leaves him an elephant named Rosy. Rosy is affectionate, but she eats a lot and has a penchant for drunken binges whenever she's in the vicinity of a pub. Adrian can't keep her, so he devises a plan to take her to the coast to find a circus to take her in even though his uncle's will forbade him to do that. 

What Adrian didn't realize is just how much of an adventure his trip with Rosy would be-- and that he'd be facing a prison term by the end. 

 

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Gerald Durrell's cautionary tale for those who get what they wish for was the perfect book to read in order to raise my spirits. Durrell swore that the whole thing actually happened and that he merely clarified and embellished, but I really don't care one way or the other. The entire story played out on the movie screen of my mind, and I found myself laughing many times as I turned the pages. I'm even smiling as I type this review.

 

Adrian has a tough time steering Rosy clear of pubs on the way down to the coast, and they also come a cropper when meeting up with a local hunt club, a country house ball, and the stage at a seaside theater. Durrell's Dickens-esque names for his characters give this story the required light and charming touch that it needs, and he includes several turns of phrase that kept me laughing. You want examples, you say? Here are two. "Lady Fenneltree had "eyes like those of a particularly maladjusted python." "He bristled and quivered like a small, alert terrier at a rabbit hole."

If you're in need of something light, fun, filled with a lovable elephant and other brilliant cartoon-like characters, as well as a legal trial that will have you laughing with glee, pick up a copy of Rosy Is My Relative. I can feel her trunk tapping me on my shoulder now.

Rosy Is My Relative by Gerald Durrell

eISBN: 9781504042628

Open Road Integrated Media © 2016

Originally published in 1968.

eBook, 234 pages

 

Humor, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Bafut Beagles by Gerald Durrell

First Line: The Cross River picks its way down the mountains of the Cameroons, until it runs sprawling and glittering into the great bowl of forest land around Mamfe.

 

In 1949, Gerald Durrell went on an expedition to collect rare animals in the British Cameroons in West Central Africa. Once in his chosen destination, he finds himself developing a good working relationship with the Fon of Bafut, a local ruler who likes a man who can hold his liquor. Durrell is soon undertaking many hunting trips with a group of local hunters and their motley pack of hunting dogs all of whom are called the Bafut Beagles.

 

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The Bafut Beagles, like other installments of Durrell's endeavors in animal conservation, is filled with wonderful anecdotes of the animals he captures and his experiences with the local people. His sense of humor when describing some of the mishaps he has with the people and animals is laugh-out-loud funny, and his sense of wonder at the awe-inspiring scenery is extremely evocative. Unfortunately, I did not find this book to be quite as enjoyable as others of his that I have read, and my reaction boils down to two things: a heavy hand with pidgin English, which made my head hurt whenever I had to translate large sections, and the slight note of condescension I detected whenever Durrell spoke about the locals, although he did occasionally praise them.

Even though I did have trouble with those two things I mentioned, I still enjoyed the book-- especially since I'd just returned from a trip to a local zoo where I'd seen three or four species of animals that the author talked about in the book. I look forward to reading more of Durrell's work in animal conservation.

 

The Bafut Beagles by Gerald Durrell

eISBN: 9781504042826

Originally published in 1954.

Open Road Integrated Media © 2017

eBook, 206 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Golden Bats & Pink Pigeons by Gerald Durrell

First Line: All over the world, hundreds of species of wild animals are facing extinction due to the direct or indirect interference of man.

Gerald Durrell was a force to be reckoned with in wildlife conservation, and Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons is his account of a trip to Mauritius and surrounding islands to capture enough critically endangered species to take back to his zoo on the island of Jersey to begin successful breeding programs. It's a wonderful book that was too short.

Durrell tells of his preparations and of trying to get all the supplies and everyone in his group in and out of boats and onto tricky landing spots in remote areas. A great deal of thought went into how they would trap the birds, bats, and reptiles so that they would not be injured as well as how the animals would be housed until they were ready to depart for Jersey. Each species required a specific number of animals for a chance at a successful breeding program, and Durrell and his group did not take any more than they needed. (There are records from the 1700s of ships leaving these islands with thousands of turtles and other creatures on board, at least half of which would die before they reached their destinations.)

Hunting the animals was fascinating reading which often made me laugh out loud as Durrell described travel with Jak fruit and being in a hut during a torrential downpour with land slugs and a nervous rat.

In addition to the laughter, it's the beauty of Mauritius that I will remember, especially Durrell breakfasting with birds out on a terrace and his incredible descriptions of marine life when he went snorkeling. If you love wildlife, this is a book you must read.

Golden Bats & Pink Pigeons: A Journey to the Flora and Fauna of a Unique Island

by Gerald Durrell

eISBN: 9781504042833

Open Road Media © 2017

Originally published in 1977.

eBook, 115 pages

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

 

The Stationary Ark by Gerald Durrell

First Line: This is a book about zoos in general, and one zoo in particular-- the one I started on the Island of Jersey.

"Zoo" was the first word Gerald Durrell could enunciate clearly, and if his nursemaid deviated from their daily walk to the local zoo, he would throw a tantrum. Years later, Durrell set up the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, and he didn't want it to be like any other zoo. His writing was one of the primary ways he financed his zoo.

The Stationary Ark is a quick yet fascinating read, all about Durrell's experiences and opinions of what a proper zoo should look like and what it should be doing. First published in the 1970s, Durrell doesn't hold back on his opinions, such as that most zoos of the day were a disgrace. Zoo design, to him, should consist of four things in strict order of importance: (1) the needs of the animal, (2) the needs of the person looking after the animal, (3) the public who wish to see the animal, and (4) the aesthetic aims of the architect and of the gardener who has to tend it. Most zoos, Durrell believed, had those four priorities in reverse order. He also believed that a zoo's primary function should be in the areas of conservation and research, not of entertaining the public. And don't even get him started on the subject of safari parks! No, he didn't hold back with his opinions, but he also didn't name names-- which made me wonder if I've ever visited any of the zoos Durrell had low opinions of.

But The Stationary Ark isn't just about Durrell's opinions. He shares how he started his own zoo on the Island of Jersey-- how he obtained animals, how he transported them to the zoo, how the animals were taken care of when they became ill, etc. One thing I'd never realized is how little was really known about almost any animal in a zoo because no research was available and because for so long zoos kept no records of the daily care and feeding of their animals. (If the animal died, they could always send someone out to get another from the wild.)

This is a fascinating little book that I'm so glad I read. Now I want to learn how present-day zoos stack up against Durrell's criteria-- criteria that put the needs of the animals front and center where they should be. 

The Stationary Ark by Gerald Durrell

eISBN: 9781504042840

Open Road Integrated Media © 2017

Originally published in 1976

eBook, 145 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon