Was this normal? I asked myself. Were fireflies known to behave in this way towards people? I lifted my hand up to my face and peered closely at the wildly signalling minuscule organism. As I did so, I heard the voice of one of my friends, who, sitting silently in the dark, had witnessed everything: ‘Good … God!’ I blew gently on the firefly, and it rose, turned once in a flickering circle, flew off into the tops of the overhanging olive trees and vanished into the night.
‘You realise what that was, don’t you?’ my friend said. He was a distinguished political journalist, and an eminently sane and sensible man. ‘Gerald Durrell keeping an eye on you, lending a hand, helping you home. No question about it. I think I’d better have another Metaxa after that!’
Every Corfiot Greek I told the story to nodded dryly and said matter-of-factly, without a hint of surprise, ‘Gerald Durrell.’
Gerald always believed that if he survived in a life after death it would be in some form of animal reincarnation. He had hoped it would be something fun – a soaring eagle, or a leaping dolphin – but perhaps a firefly would do at a pinch.
Make of this visitation what you will, there is no doubt that Gerald Durrell’s spirit does live on in one way or another – in his books, in his zoo, in his ongoing mission, in the natural world he has left behind.
There have been six great waves of extinctions on earth during the millions of years of geological time. Extinction has always been a fact of life – the downside to existence, with evolution as the upside. ‘One can’t understand evolution, really, without understanding extinction,’ noted American palaeontologist Niles Eldredge. ‘And you can’t understand extinction without first grasping ecology. Extinction is fundamentally a story of ecological collapse.’
We are in a period of ecological collapse right now, the consequence of habitat and species loss partly attributable to climate change and partly to the destructive activities of Homo sapiens (which in turn accelerate climate change). The predictions for future extinctions in our time are dire for both animals and plants – and perhaps for man himself, since man cannot escape the fate of the natural world, no matter how much he believes he can; like it or not, he remains part of the global ecosystem. It may be that in the long term the universe is implacably hostile to all life anyway. It may be that our planet and all its cargo are proceeding towards eventual extinction. It may be that in the shorter term all life proceeds according to the laws of evolution, through successive stages of extinction (from whatever causes) to universal oblivion. But as Gerald Durrell constantly reiterated throughout his adult life, that does not mean a man can stand idly by and watch it all happen without lifting a finger. With the millennium, perhaps, we will enter an age of ethics. Man can learn, as Gerald Durrell frequently pointed out; man can come to his senses, can change, can try to save the day. And thanks to the inspiration of people like him there are signs that, at the eleventh hour, this is beginning to happen; that we may one day hope to turn the tide of habitat-destruction and man-made extinction on earth.
That was Gerald Durrell’s message, and that was Gerald Durrell’s life mission. That message and that mission will be carried forward by those who succeed him.
The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
As it enters the new millennium the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust has reviewed and renewed its mission. The vision of its founder, Gerald Durrell, has been enshrined in a new name, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and in the simple and effective method that he began – and that his staff have refined over forty years – to save animals from extinction.
The world’s problems and those of its wildlife stretch ahead and are likely to grow. The planet needs organisations like the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to rescue and revive the most critically endangered species in sufficient habitat to survive whatever man-made crisis lies ahead.
If you would like to hear more about the work of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to save species from extinction, please write to the Trust at Les Augrès Manor, Trinity, Jersey JE3 5BP (telephone 01534 860000; fax 01534 860001; email jerseyzoo@durrell.org); or to Wildlife Preservation Trust Canada, 120 King Street, Guelph, Ontario NIE 4P8, Canada; or to Wildlife Preservation Trust International, 1520 Locust Street, Suite 704, Philadalphia PA 19102–4403, USA.
Sources
CHAPTER ONE: Landfall in Jamshedpur
Gordon Bowker, letter to the author, 15 October 1997
Gordon Bowker, Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interviews with Molly Briggs and Phyllis Coulson, January 1986, and with the author, 1995–98
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, letter to a Mrs Seaward, October 1990
Jacquie Durrell, interview with the author, November 1995
Lawrence Durrell to Henry Miller, 27 January 1937
Nancy Durrell, ‘Memoirs’ (transcripts from tapes, c.1972)
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
Ian MacNiven, Lawrence Durrell: A Biography
Celia Yeo, Durrell Family Tree
CHAPTER TWO: ‘The Most Ignorant Boy in the School’
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interview with the author, 1995
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interview with Molly Briggs and Phyllis Coulson, January 1986
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, ‘Lawrence Durrell’ (typescript, c.1979, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals
Lawrence Durrell to Henry Miller, 1937 (MacNiven Collection)
Lawrence Durrell (ed. Alan Thomas), Spirit of Place
Nancy Durrell, ‘Memoirs’ (transcripts from tapes, c.1972)
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
Dorothy Keep, interview with the author, summer 1996
Ian MacNiven, Lawrence Durrell: A Biography
CHAPTER THREE: The Gates of Paradise
The principal source for Gerald Durrell’s life on Corfu remains My Family and Other Animals. Though this has a number of shortcomings as biographical source material - a tenuous chronology, an anecdotal approach, and some tinkering with the literal truth – it remains very close to the spirit, and often the letter, of his experience on the island as a boy, and his recollections of places, landscapes and the natural history of Corfu are surprisingly exact. His later accounts of his Corfu experience – Birds, Beasts and Relatives (1969), Garden of the Gods (1978) and his unpublished autobiographical sketches – are essentially the mixture as before, albeit with a rather more tenuous grasp on fact, and do little to alter the basic narrative framework. Almost all of the main players in the island idyll are now dead, but a number have left memoirs of one sort or another, and these have provided valuable insights, elaborations and qualifications in the construction of this chapter.
Anne Barrowclough, Daily Mail, 19 November 1987
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interview with the author, November 1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, French TV interview
Gerald Durrell, ‘Last Word’, a tribute to Theo Stephanides, JWPT Newsletter, n.d.
Gerald Durrell, letter to Peter Barber-Fleming, BBC TV, 6 January 1987
Gerald Durrell, ‘The Man of Animals’ (manuscript, Corfu, c.1935, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, manuscript poem, Corfu, c.1935 (Durrell Archives, Manuscript Department, British Library)
Gerald Durrell, ‘Script Notes’ re ‘My Family - 2nd Draft Scripts’, sent to Joe Waters et al., BBC TV, 15 November 1986
Lawrence Durrell, ‘Blue Thirst’ (lecture at Caltech, Pasadena, Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1975)
Lawrence Durrell, Prospero’s Cell
Lawrence Durrell (ed. Alan Thomas), Spirit of Place
Nancy
Durrell, ‘Memoirs’ (transcripts from tapes, c.1972)
Alex Emmett, interview with the author, 1998
Arthur Foss (with Alexia Mercouri and Marie Sanson), ‘Theodore Stephanides’, in Greek Gazette (1996)
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
Ian MacNiven, Lawrence Durrell: A Biography
Mary Stephanides to Peter Harrison, July and August 1998
Theo Stephanides, letter to Gerald Durrell, 3 November 1984 (Jersey Archives)
Theo Stephanides, My Island Years
Alan Thomas Collection of Durrell Family Papers (Manuscripts Department, British Library)
Alan Thomas, letter to Gerald Durrell, 11 October 1984
CHAPTER FOUR: The Garden of the Gods
All the Durrell villas and surrounding habitats on Corfu still exist today, though the Strawberry-Pink Villa has been much altered and extended.
Douglas Botting, Corfu field notes, June 1996
Gordon Bowker, Through the Dark Labyrinth
Geoffrey Carr, ‘Memories of Corfu’, in The Corfiot; and interview with the author, 1996
Menelaos Condos, interview with the author, June 1996
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interviews with the author, 1995–1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘An African Dialogue’ in Seven, No. 5, Summer 1939 (Durrell Archives, Manuscript Department, British Library)
Gerald Durrell, Birds, Beasts and Relatives
Gerald Durrell, ‘Death’, in the Booster, Paris, November 1937
Gerald Durrell, foreword to The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre (Beacon Press, 1990)
Gerald Durrell, ‘In the Theatre’, in the Booster, Paris, October 1937
Gerald Durrell, interview with Michael Armstrong, February 1980
Gerald Durrell, taped conversation with John Burton, n.d. Gerald Durrell, ‘Script Notes’ re ‘My Family – 2nd Draft Scripts’, sent to Joe Waters et al., BBC TV, 15 November 1986
Gerald Durrell, letter to Harriet McGeorge, c.1991
Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals
Gerald Durrell, ‘My Brother Larry’, in Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 33 no. 3, Hofstra University, 1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘Night-Club’ (typescript, c.1936, Durrell Archives, Manuscript Department, British Library)
Lawrence Durrell, letter to Henry Miller, March 1937 (MacNiven Collection)
Lawrence Durrell, letter to Ann Ridler, October 1939
Lawrence Durrell, ‘A Landmark Gone’, in Orientations, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Cairo, n.d.)
Lawrence Durrell (ed. Alan Thomas), Spirit of Place
Leslie Durrell, letter to Alan Thomas, 1936 (Durrell Archives, Manuscript Department, British Library)
Nancy Durrell, ‘Memoirs’ (transcripts from tapes, c.1972)
Tom Evans to Peter Harrison, July 1998
Peter Harrison, ‘The Corfu Landscapes of Gerald Durrell’, in Landscape Review, November 1996 and The Corfiot, August 1996
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
Lee Langley, ‘The Other Mr Durrell’, Guardian, 1 August 1970
Ian MacNiven, Lawrence Durrell: A Biography
Brian A. Maddock, notes and correspondence on the Durrell villas, June 1992 and February 1997
Tim Newell Price (School Archivist, Leighton Park School) to the author, July 1998
Mary Stephanides to Peter Harrison, August 1998
Alan Thomas, bibliography, in G.S. Fraser, Lawrence Durrell
CHAPTER FIVE: Gerald in Wartime
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interview with the author, November 1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, Beasts in my Belfry
Gerald Durrell, draft introduction to Lucy Pendar, Whipsnade: My Africa (2 August 1990, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, draft note for Ark on the Move
Gerald Durrell, interview with Michael Armstrong, February 1980
Gerald Durrell, taped conversation with John Burton, n.d.
Gerald Durrell, interview with Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, 1971
Gerald Durrell, ‘Notes for an Autobiography’ (typescript, 1994, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, ‘A Transport of Terrapins’, in Fillets of Plaice (1971)
Jacquie Durrell, interview with the author, November 1995
Lee Durrell, interview with the author, October 1996
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
Eileen McCarrol, ‘Childhood in Corfu’ (Women’s Weekly, 7 November 1987)
CHAPTER SIX: Odd-Beast Boy
Jill Adams (née Johnson), interview with the author, July 1996
Robert Bendiner, The Fall of the Wild: The Rise of the Zoo
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, Beasts in my Belfry
Gerald Durrell, draft note for Ark on the Move
Gerald Durrell, uncut draft of BBC radio talk Vanishing Animals (progamme five of series Animal Attitudes, 3 March 1958)
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
Peter Mathiessen, Wildlife in America
Lucy Pendar, Whipsnade: My Africa
Colin Tudge, Last Animals at the Zoo
CHAPTER SEVEN: Planning for Adventure
Ian Bevan, ‘He brings them back alive’, John Bull, 4 February 1950
Anthony Condos to the author and Peter Harrison, June and July 1998
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interviews with the author, 1990, November and December 1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, letter to Anthony Condos, 1 February 1989
Gerald Durrell, letter to Lawrence Durrell, 14 December 1954
Jacquie Durrell, interview with the author, November 1995
Lawrence Durrell to Henry Miller, 1947
Lee Durrell, interview with the author, October 1996
Margaret Durrell, Whatever Happened to Margo?
Lee Langley, ‘The Other Mr Durrell’, Guardian, 1 August 1970
CHAPTER EIGHT: To the Back of Beyond
Gerald Durrell, ‘Cholmondeley’, in the Listener, 28 September 1963
Gerald Durrell, The Overloaded Ark
Gerald Durrell, preface to Andrew Mitchell, The Enchanted Canopy
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
CHAPTER NINE: In the Land of the Fon
Sir David Attenborough, letter to the author, 5 April 1998
Bournemouth Echo, ‘Off to Africa Wilds’, January 1949
Bournemouth Echo, ‘He’s off to Darkest Africa’, January 1949
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interview with the author, December 1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘Cameroons Diary 1949–50’
Gerald Durrell to Richard Connif, Geo, May 1983
Gerald Durrell, letters to Louisa Durrell 6 February, 14 February, 8 March, 28 April, 8 June 1949
Gerald Durrell, notes for lecture on animal collecting (Gerald Durrell Lecture File 1954ff)
Gerald Durrell, notes for lecture at Royal Festival Hall, 13 November 1954
Gerald Durrell, Snake Hole, BBC Home Service, 12 July 1956
Gerald Durrell, taped conversation with John Burton, n.d.
Gerald Durrell, ‘Ursula’, in Fillets of Plaice
Peter Olney, interview with the author, July 1996
Ken Smith, letter to Leslie Durrell, 21 May 1949
Jean Stroud, ‘Pit of Death’, in Look and Learn, 2 December 1967
CHAPTER TEN: New Worlds to Conquer
The main source for the early days of the Gerald and Jacquie Durrell relationship is Jacquie Durrell’s Beasts in my Bed
Sir David Attenborough to the author, 5 April 1998
Ian Bevan, ‘He Brings them Back Alive’, in John Bull, 4 February 1950
Gordon Bowker, Through the Dark Laby
rinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell
Margaret Duncan (Durrell), interview with the author, November 1997
Gerald Durrell, ‘Autobiographical Fragments’ (unpublished typescript, Jersey Archives)
Gerald Durrell, letter to his bank, Bournemouth, c. summer 1958
Gerald Durrell, Three Singles to Adventure
Jacquie Durrell, interview with the author, November 1995
Jacquie Durrell to the author, September and October 97
Lee Durrell and Jeremy Mallinson to the author, July 1998
Margaret Durrell, Whatever Happened to Margo?
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Writing Man
Gerald Durrell, ‘Cholmondeley, in the Listener, 28 November 1963
Gerald Durrell, interview with Michael Armstrong, February 1980
Gerald Durrell, ‘Lawrence Durrell’ in Evening Standard, 5 October 1961
Gerald Durrell, ‘The Travel Bug is Stirring Again, World Books Bulletin, March 1956
Gerald Durrell, ‘The Traveller as Writer’, in Books and Bookmen, July 1956
Jacquie Durrell, Beasts in my Bed
Jacquie Durrell, ‘For Always’, magazine article, c.1962
Jacquie Durrell, interviews with the author, October 1995 and October 1997
Jacquie Durrell to the author, November 1995 and October 1997
Lawrence Durrell (ed. Alan Thomas), Spirit of Place
David Hughes, Himself and Other Animals
In Town Tonight, 1 August 1953 (BBC transcript)
Ian MacNiven (ed.), The Durrell – Miller Letters
Ian MacNiven and Harry T. Moore (eds), Literary Lifelines: The Richard Aldington-Lawrence Durrell Correspondence
Gavin Maxwell, ‘The Technique of Travel Writing’, National Book League, December 1960
Dr Alan Ogden, letters to the author, 18 and 2.0 October 1995
CHAPTER TWELVE: Of Beasts and Books
Carlos Selva Andrade, ‘En el mundo heroico de la aventura científica’, Vea y Lea, Buenos Aires, December 1953