Douglas Botting’s biography of GAVIN MAXWELL was hugely praised and is still in print as a HarperCollins paperback. His previous books reflect his interest in travel, exploration and wild places. He was an exploration film-maker for the BBC’s ‘World About Us’ and became a full-time writer with the publication of his highly praised biography of the German explorer-naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, Humboldt and the Cosmos.
Botting, the biographer of naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (Humboldt and the Cosmos), here offers an exhaustive study of a man who had widespread influence in the world of naturalists and zoos (Durrell was founder of the zoo on the island of Jersey), nature writing, animal rights, nature shows on television, and endangered species conservation (he also founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust). Clearly, Durrell, who died in 1995, was a very significant and farsighted man. Readers will gain insight into what made Durrell who he was, from the early influences of his beloved mentor, Theo Stephanides, his family (including his famous author brother, Lawrence), and his friends. Given full access to Durrell's personal and professional papers, Botting clearly admires his subject yet presents an evenhanded account, including "the warts," as he calls them. Readers familiar with Durrell will relish this detailed biography. Those yet to know this influential giant have this near encyclopedia waiting. Strongly recommended for all collections.ÄNancy J. Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
All Durrell fans will want to own this captivating and deeply moving but surprisingly (for an authorized book) candid biography. It offers a rounded portrait of all sides of the man-naturalist, animal lover, champion of conservation, prolific author, zoo founder, bon vivant, documentary filmmaker, poet, broadcaster, explorer, marathon globetrotter. Getting past the public persona of the charming, modest, resolute, jovial guru, British writer Botting (Humboldt and the Cosmos) reveals a very different Gerald Durrell (1925-1995)Äan astute, cunning, sometimes overbearing political animal; an alcoholic who mixed booze and tranquilizers; a visionary whose seemingly hopeless self-appointed mission to save the world's endangered species drove him to despair, sporadic rage and misanthropy, costing him his privacy, peace of mind, health and first marriage. Durrell's zoo, which he founded on the English isle of Jersey in 1959, pioneered the captive breeding of animals threatened with extinction, with the aim of reintroducing them to their native habitats. In some ways Jersey recapitulated his boyhood idyll on the Greek island of Corfu, where Durrell (born in India) had moved from London with his bohemian family in 1935 at the age of 10. Botting, who had exclusive access to the Durrell family archives and to Durrell's voluminous private papers, fills this uninhibited biography with hitherto unpublished autobiographical sketches, letters and diary excerpts; with wonderful stories of animals and people; with a perceptive account of Durrell's relationships with his two wives and his novelist brother, Lawrence, who sparked his interest in writing. Though critical of Durrell at times, this extraordinary saga remains true to the adventurous spirit of Durrell's writings, capturing a dynamo beset by a gnawing fear that his life's work had been in vain. Photos. Agent, Andrew Hawson at John Johnson. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
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