2023 - 26

Most people were only familiar with Lawrence Durrell until BBC aired The Durrells in Corfu. With that film version of the family, young Gerry became a popular character, and the real life Gerald's writings and nature conservancy work finally got the attention it deserves. In this book, Gerald goes to Cameroon to collect up a variety of wildlife specimens for study. The shenanigans that ensue are reminiscent of the antics from the BBC series, animals acting true to their nature and Gerald hanging on for dear life. It was a wonderful, quick read that had me smiling and laughing throughout. Gerald's description of the specimens he collects, their behavior, and the surrounding landscape is always lyrical and captivating, just scientific enough to satisfy curiosity.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly recommended. ( )

This book is about his first wildlife collecting trip- to Cameroon in Central Africa- with a colleague John Yealland, who specialized in birds.... Just as interesting as his descriptions of tracking and catching the wildlife are his accounts of travel into remote areas, encounters with native people, working to build cages, feed and tend to the creatures, some of which had never been kept in captivity before.... So many curious creatures Durrell found- the Calabar ground python whose head looks like its tail, the giant otter shrew (the internet tells me it is not a real shrew but a tenrec), the beautiful gaboon viper whose back is marked with a row of perfect rectangles, the rare and coveted angwantibo- a lemur not to be confused with the potto, the brush tailed porcupine which led him to a nasty encounter in a cave. Durrell crawled into a lot of caves in this book. In particular looking for bats but he founds lots of other wildlife in the dark. Also tromped around the thick forest after nightfall to catch nocturnal animals, and followed packs of dogs in the hope of catching a serval- he saw one close at hand but never caught one. The dogs several times tracked down giant monitor lizards instead. There are lots of monkeys mentioned, beautiful birds of many sorts, chameleons, great snakes and diminutive antelope. Last of all a chimpanzee named Chumley. I'm sure I've read about Chumley in one of his other books, probably it was Encounter with Animals? I was sad to read of his end in this one...

There's so much more. Description of the landscape and surroundings are very detailed. The book closes with a short account of his trip home on board ship with the collection. He took a lot of care over their health and handling, and only had a few losses. With relief at the end of the journey he finally saw the animals loaded onto zoo vans, headed for their new homes. It's nice there is a little index in the back listing all the species mentioned in the text. The ink illustrations by Sabine Bauer are lovely.

more at the Dogear Diary ( )

Britisk Cameroon, 1947
Indeholder "Oversætterens bemærkninger", "En forudskikket bemærkning", "Forspil", "Første del - Eshobi", "1. Skoven ved dag", "2. Røg og lille kød", "3. Større kød", "4. Skoven ved nat", "5. Forsteningen, der bider", "6. Kød og kødbringere", "7. Arbejde, aber og afsked", "Anden del - Bakebe og bagefter", "8. Slanger og solfugle", "9. Arctocebus ohøj!", "10. N'da Ali", "11. Ju-ju'en, der virkede", "12. Cholmondeley's liv og død", "13. Landsbyen i søen", "14. Arken udskibes", "Finale".

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En beretning om en ekspedition for at finde dyr til en zoologisk have ( )

What a blend of reactions I have to this little book. I love Durrell, always have. But it is hard to read the way animals were then collected for zoos. The young Durrell cared lots for his creatures, but he was willing to shoot guns inside caves to scare bats into reach for capture. Humour, rhapsodic moments in the writing, and an ark full of insight are provided here. Buckle your seatbelt, sensitive modern reader. ( )