| Title | : | A Zoo in My Luggage |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 014303524X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780143035244 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 198 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1960 |
A Zoo in My Luggage Reviews
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"WOW! A whole glorious panoply of exotic pets for my own private Zoo - all HAND-PICKED through my own considerable (and uproariously funny) Herculean efforts!"
So seems to say Gerald Durrell - with little modesty - at the outset of this outrageous romp.
And he is so side-splittingly FUNNY in his ways of fulfilling his dreams - and at the end of each hot, exhausting day, a cool dram of some uplifting spirits is sure to await him.
And there’d better be some ice! Africa’s a sauna.
After each and every day day of exhausting patience and dangerous tenacity tracking down and transporting back home some exotic animal species unknown to most Europeans, who could blame him for having a few drinks?
Everyone relaxes in different ways.
My father, a serious scientist, used to loosen up in the evenings by burying himself in the final edition of our local newspaper.
On many a frigid winter evening it would both amuse him and let him give vent to his strong feelings. What an apéro was to Durrell, the local newspaper was to Dad!
I think his favourite section was the comics, though of course he loved to fume about what Canadian politicians were doing to our formerly so steady, well-run and predictable country!
John Diefenbaker (remember Dief the Chief? Oh well...) was his hero. A westerner like Dad is, our 1950’s PM would prop his hands on his kidneys proudly in the legislature like a bejowled old rooster, chest out, and stertorously give the opposition parties high thundrin’ hell.
It was later that Dad found an outlet in Norman Lear sitcoms... Laughter being a much healthier pressure release valve!
So when my mom brought THIS book home from her library one Saturday, while my little brother and I watched Cowboy Corner, we couldn’t tear it away from Dad for love or for money!
He always had a soft spot for animals.
I think you could write the history of our Ontario childhood from the standpoint of our endless succession of family pets.
Our dogs always gave him, and us, no excuse for NOT getting outdoors and enjoying some exercise, away from family differences - and as a sure panacea to anger and frustration it was non pareil...
So he LOVED this book.
And Durrell, the famous brother of Lawrence, the equally renowned author of The Alexandria Quartet, never disappoints.
He’s always sure to lift our own spirits, in a never-say-die toast to the Spirit of Youthful Adventure! -
A Zoo in my Luggage is Gerald Durrell's account of a six-month trip he and his wife made in 1957, collecting animals in Bafut, a mountain grassland region in Cameroon, West Africa. This was the author's third trip to what was then the "British Cameroons", which resulted in the founding of Jersey Zoo (now the Durrell Wildlife Park). The writing is typical of his lively humorous style. Durrell was a prolific author, publishing 37 books in all, of which this is the seventh. They include a few serious nonfiction books, and a few novels, but for the main part they are all similar to this one: factual accounts of highlights from his trips. They were written partly to educate, partly to fund his next expedition, but mostly to entertain.
This has all Durrell's wit and droll humour, but is not one of the best, for reasons which will become clear. Much of the book consists of conversations between the author and the hunters he has employed, or the author and the Fon of Bafut, whose hospitality he is enjoying. Right at the start of the book, Gerald Durrell expresses his worries about the Fon of Bafut, who was the traditional ruler of the town of Bafut and its adjoining areas in the Northwest Province: the local tribe leader. Durrell is concerned that that the Fon may be angry with him, and consider that he was represented disrespectfully in Durrell's previous books, as a figure of fun. To arrive in Bafut and find that the Fon, on the contrary, is overjoyed to see him again, and rekindle their drink-fuelled friendship, is a great relief. The episodes involving the two of them are extremely entertaining (although not strictly pertinent to a book about animals).
The reason for this book, Gerald Durrell asserts, is that it was all very well collecting animals for various zoos, as he had been doing for several years, but it was very hard to let them go. In the interim time, when he had to care for them whilst assembling the collection, he inevitably bonded with each individual, and formed very close relationships with his charges. Well-respected naturalist and animal expert that he was, there is always a fair amount of anthropomorphising of the animals in his books, especially the mammals. Gerald Durrell knows a very great deal about animal behaviour, but just as we find with our pets, it is very hard not to view them as members of the family.
Gerald Durrell also had a vision for his own zoo. He wanted it to be open to the public and to aim to become a “self-supporting laboratory” so that he could continue studying animals. He believed that ever-increasing human population encroaching on native habitats endangered so many animals that extinction of some species was inevitable. The only way to prevent this, he deduced, was to rescue some and breed them in captivity, in his planned zoo. Here he describes his approach,
“For many years I had wanted to start a zoo ... Any normal person smitten with such an ambition would have got the zoo first and the animals next. But throughout my life I have rarely if ever achieved what I wanted by tackling it in a logical fashion. So, naturally, I went and got the animals first and then set about the task of finding my zoo.”
This idea may also seem a precarious, perhaps irresponsible position to voluntarily put yourself in, but it is characteristic of Gerald Durrell's passionate and impulsive nature, flying as always by the seat of his pants. In earlier books he coped with lack of cash, appalling weather, lack of anywhere to put the animals (at least he know knew the wisdom constucting strong cages before the expedition!) and even coped with an internal political revolution in one book. Not actually having a site to put his zoo perhaps seemed a minor inconvenience. Perhaps in the end, it is precisely Durrell's dogged determination which got things done, rather than being forever bogged down in bureaucracy.
On the way to Bafut from the town of Mamfe, where he had been staying for ten days, Durrell obtained his first animal. Joyfully he bought a rare creature, a baby black-footed mongoose, from someone in a village where they had stopped to buy some fruit,
“The black-footed mongoose, although still only a baby, measured some two feet in length and stood about eight inches in height ... Her body, head, and tail were a rich, creamy white, while her slender legs were a rich brown that was almost black. She was sleek, sinuous, and svelte, and reminded me of a creamy-skinned Parisienne “belle-amie” clad in nothing more than two pairs of black silk stockings”.
Beautiful she may have been, but the baby mongoose proceeded to wreak havoc in the lorry, so in desperation Durrell tucked her inside his shirt where she,
"made several attempts to dig a hole in my stomach with her exceedingly sharp claws, and on being persuaded to desist from this occupation she had seized a large portion of my abdomen in her mouth and sucked it vigorously and hopefully, while irrigating me with an unending stream of warm and pungent urine."
The hot dusty journey culminated in Durrell marching up the steps of the house where he was to stay, with a mongoose tail dangling out of his shirt. Meeting several important-looking strangers, he attempted to appear nonchalant as he introduced himself. Nobody was surprised. They had apparently been informed by head office to expect an "animal maniac" two days previously.
This episode sets the light amusing tone - with more than a touch of absurdity - for the rest of the book. Within 24 hours, his host had not only the baby mongoose, but a squirrel, a bushbaby and two monkeys living on the verandah.
The first expedition was to try to catch "ipopo", a word which caused some confusion to start with until Durrell translated it excitedly as "hippopotamus". These are very dangerous creatures, and despite Durrell's confident claim that he had got within thirty feet of them to take photographs previously, the hunter insisted,
"Dis ipopo get strong head now, sah ... two months pass dey kill three men and break two boats."
The description of the failed attempt to catch hippopotamuses on the Cross River, via a frightening canoe ride, is both exciting and entertaining. Not all the daily expeditions were successful by any means, and most were started by word of mouth, or the slightest rumour of a sighting. These adventures describing their mishaps are perhaps even more hilarious than their successes! Another memorable encounter was going to catch a fifteen-foot long python in a very narrow cave. There was a search for the blue-scalped, bald-headed "Picanthartes" bird. And another occasion detailed the process of smoking out a hollow tree - just to see what they could find. In the event, they collected many paper-thin whip scorpions. Durrell's energy and excitement shines through these episodes, before the expedition heads deeper into Cameroon and the highlands. Despite everything there is an irrepressible optimism about the author, and even when a situation looks at its most dire, he finds a way to turn it round with both humour and humanity.
Durrell attempted to trace the hunters who had worked for him before. Word soon got round, and he was approached by several expert hunters who assured him they could collect "plenty beef". Sadly though, several had met with tragic ends,
"in my eight years' absence Old N'ago had been killed by a bush-cow; Andraia had been bitten in the foot by a water beef; Samuel's gun had exploded and blown a large portion of his arm away (a good joke, this), while just recently John had killed the biggest bush-pig they had ever seen, and sold the meat for over two pounds."
The book does contain rather too much conversation between Durrell and the hunters, pointing up the difficulties in communication in a mixture of English and Camtok. I would personally have been easier in my mind had the humour resulted more from the situations, rather than the fumblings towards understanding each other's various names, descriptions and negotiations.
Durrell has a skill for description and evoking a sense of place, which I feel he does not make enough use of in this book. Take a passage beginning,
"The only sounds were the incessant songs of the great green cicadas clinging to every tree, and, in the distance, the drunken honking of a flock of hornbills. As we smoked we watched some of the little brown forest skinks hunting among the roots of the trees around us. These little lizards always looked neat and shining, as though they had been cast in chocolate, and had just that second stepped out of the mould, gleaming and immaculate ..."
which follows on for several pages giving a beautiful description of flora and fauna, beetles, slugs, crickets and a strange insect,
"like a small daddy longlegs in repose, but with opaque misty-white wings ... trembling their wings gently, and moving their fragile legs up and down like restive horses. When disturbed they all took to the air ... they began to fly round and round very rapidly ... they resembled a whirling ball of shimmering misty white, changing its shape slightly at intervals ... they flew so fast and their bodies were so slender, that all you could see was this shimmer of frosty wings ..."
With such an eye for detail, and understanding of animal behaviour, how much more preferable in a book about animals, is a balance between anecdotes of "animal antics" and such informative and nuanced description.
Arriving in Bafut, Gerald Durrell was very relieved to find the Fon as delighted to see him as he had dared to anticipate. The Fon graciously welcomed them back, and soon Durrell, his wife, and staff, were settled into the rural compound of the Fon of Bafut and his many wives. Durrell joins his friend for many long evenings filled with talk, dance, and alcohol. The escapades Durrell has with his fun-loving, generous and uninhibited host, provide much of the entertainment for the readers in the middle section; some of the anecdotes being quite hilarious. Despite now being an old man in his 80s, the Fon still has an enormous taste and capacity for western alcoholic beverages, and is very keen on his whisky and gin. With the energy of a much younger man, the Fon is keen to laugh and party until sunrise the next day. The Fon of Bafut comes across as the life and soul of the party; the star of the show, although their escapades generally start out with quite a formal invitation. Here is an example of one written exchange between the two,
"My good friend, would you like to come and have a drink with us this evening at eight o'clock? Your friend, Gerald Durrell.
My good friend, expect me at 7.30pm. Thanks. Your good friend, Fon of Bafut."
Gleefully, both Gerald Durrell and the readers know full well that from this mild request, mayhem will ensue.
Running alongside these mischievously disreputable antics is the account of how gradually a collection of animals was amassed. Soon the Fon’s compound has filled up with hundreds more captive reptiles, birds, and animals. Durrell describes the highlights and disasters of each episode, collecting numerous mammals, birds and reptiles from various places, including sometimes as pets. They include seventeen monkeys, plus the endearing Bug-eye the bush-baby. One little troop of monkeys go into ecstasies eating grubs - but are terrified of them until they've bitten them in half!
Eventually Minnie, a five-year-old chimp and Cholmondely, a baby chimp, join the "family" providing even more hilarity, as they have such engaging personalites. Cholmondely, pronounced "Chumly" was such a gentlemanly type of chimpanzee, that he greeted Durrell with an outstretched hand, fully expecting it to be shaken. We also meet Georgina, another pet, a half-grown baboon, whose former owner had left her in a compound to be picked up. Amusingly, Durrell found this task almost as difficult as actually attempting to trap one in the wild, but it he makes it sound a lot of fun,
"Within half an hour she had eaten all the bananas and we had established some sort of friendship: that is to say we played pat-a-cake, we chased each other round the compound and in and out of her hut, and we climbed one of the trees together."
Caring for these animals on a daily basis, feeding them and making sure they stayed healthy, proved to be a round-the-clock task. Gerald Durrell and his wife often had animals sleeping in boxes near their beds. When these animals decided that it was feeding time, they quickly discovered the fastest way to get fed was to climb into the couple's bed.
Eventually Durrell had amassed more than 250 animals, some of which were very rare. It was time to give some thought to where to take them. We learn the logistics of building cages, packing them on trucks for the three-day trip back to the Cameroon coast and shipping them home. Even positioning the cages was important, so the animals did not spook each other. At all points it was paramount to keep them healthy and calm, so that they could be transported safely. At this point the book's title was decided, by a gobsmacked porter at a station, startled by the myriad of cages and boxes into exclaiming,
"You've got a zoo in your luggage!"
Someone always seemed to come to their rescue in Gerald Durrell's experience. During the expedition in Cameroon, they had the privilege of staying in the Fon of Bafut's Resthouse. Now they had the daunting task of trying to find a place to put all these rare animals. While they ruminated over the problem of finding a place to make a zoo, Gerald Durrell, his wife, and all the animals ended up incredibly staying in his mother's garden in suburban Bournemouth. The process took many weeks, to the dismay of the immediate neighbours. Still their difficulties had not really begun, since they had not yet secured a permanent place for their zoo, and winter was coming.
A department store came to the rescue, and Durrell managed to secure a safe home there for his animals, as a live exhibit over the winter season, while he continued his search. On one occasion he had a frantic call from a policeman, as Georgina had escaped and got up to mischief by rampaging through the store. She had always had a bad habit of jumping out on people to scare them for fun, but it was a different matter for a baboon to be loose in Bournemouth, running all around a shop floor.
In another amusing episode, Cholmondeley the chimpanzee surprised Durrell with his memory when they were travelling about in England. Even in such constrained and unnatural circumstances, Durrell displays his inveterate curiosity about animal behaviour, and expands both his and our knowledge by recounting anecdotes. Cholmondeley recognised the countryside as they were driving along, and as they got nearer to pubs where he had had attention lavished on him, he became very excited, and jumped up and down screeching. Cholmondeley also remembered how to get petrol into the Lambretta when they returned to the garage after several weeks.
Durrell’s account in this last third of the book provides as much adventure and hilarity as capturing them. After a whole year of trying to find a place, he has a stroke of luck. He was introduced to Hugh Fraser, a resident of Jersey. An invitation to visit Hugh's home resulted, serendipitously, in finding the perfect location for his zoo.
The reader may have some reservations about reading this particular book - or indeed, any "animal-collecting" books dating from that time. It is worth remembering that although now we are very conscious of the ethical considerations of taking a wild animal from its native habitat, had it not been for Gerald Durrell, ordinary people worldwide would never have had the opportunity to see or know of many of the creatures which are now so familiar to us from wildlife parks. He was almost singlehandedly reponsible for triggering many of the world's animal welfare and conservation programmes, and was a champion of better conditions in zoos, from a time when cruelty there was rife, and before the issue had ever occurred to many.
An added difficulty when approaching this book, however, is that it dates from Colonial times, when the country was "British Cameroon", and sometimes it shows. Gerald Durrell was a fair man, passionate and caring about wildlife, and dedicated to preserving it for the future. He was never afraid to poke fun at himself, or to "muck in", and took as many risks, if not more, than the hunters whom he employed. Considering that he was born in British India and grew up on the Greek island of Corfu, he was a forward-looking man, thinking mostly outside his class and culture.
Yet in many ways A Zoo in My Luggage is a book of its time. Even the language itself used by the inhabitants, Camtok, is referred to as "pidgin English" a name betraying a whole raft of prejudices. It dates from the 17th century British missionaries, and spread during the 18th century slave plantations owned by Britain and Germany. The official languages of Cameroon today are English and French, but 8 out the the 10 provinces speak Camtok, with its own set of rules and codes. However, Camtok continues to be discouraged and thought of as an inferior variety of English. Most inhabitants can speak at least two out of these three languages.
Camtok continues to be officially marginalised even by some first-language speakers who are educators. The most obvious reason for this linguistic prejudice is that the two languages are very similar and yet so different. This means that Camtok poses a permanent threat to Standard English. Frequently there is switching between the two. A book which relies partly on these linguistic differences as a source for humour, is on very dodgy ground indeed.
It has to be said that Gerald Durrell does seem to be fluent in Camtok, and mostly his reported conversations do not have colonial overtones, or display the patronising attitude which a present-day reader might fear. They are merely ... funny. It would be nice to think that the characters involved would have thought they were equally amusing. Certainly the Fon of Bafut was thrilled to gain world-wide popularity through Gerald Durrell's representation of his exuberant colourful personality. Ultimately we feel that Durrell has learned as much about life from the Fon, as the Fon has learned from Durrell and his animals. We get a sense of a fun-loving exhilaration, of people who like to see humour in everything.
The line illustrations by Ralph Thompson add to the enjoyment of the book. Many of these creatures now do seem familiar, and Gerald Durrell both established his zoo on Jersey, and went on to write many more books. He became famous on television too. There is no update or epilogue to explain what happened to Durrell's zoo after it was established, or details of the captive breeding programmes he established. This might have been a good idea, considering the valid criticisms made of zoos in the fifty+ years since Durrell wrote the book, and the progress made in animal welfare largely due to his outspoken efforts. He has done incredible work and created great interest in the conservation of various species. But still, this book feels a little dated.
By all means read it it you are a fan, and want to read the author's entire oeuvre as I do. He has a wealth of fascinating experience, a droll sense of humour, sensitivity, a delightful way of phrasing things, and a superb eye for detail. I guarantee you will find parts to delight you. But if you are looking for an introduction to his light informative reads, then I would advise choosing another one.
Note: I have also reviewed other books by Gerald Durrell, on my shelves. -
I'm sure I must have read this years ago along with the rest of his books, but I was quite happy to read it gain. Durrell's books are a bit dated now but they are still warm and funny and full of beautiful descriptions of the countryside and of facts about the many animals he meets along the way. This was a fairly light hearted and entertaining book which could have been designed for reading in a waiting room. This was where I read most of it and it served the purpose perfectly!
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I love Durrell's book the Amateur Naturalist, so I was excited to learn more about his life. But I was so disappointed by this book. His descriptions of Africa are beautiful and his animal stories are of course interesting, but I was surprised at just how arrogant an irresponsible he was, and how little his animals meant to him much of the time. He refers to them as "items" or "stuff" and has a very clear preference for the rare and exotic and the bragging rights that come with being the first to import a particular species. Death and sickness are described as an inevitable annoyance, which happen at the more inconvenient times and ruin his plans.
Given the title, the period in which it occurred, and basic topic of the story (Durrell set out to collect enough animals for his own zoo), I shouldn't be surprised, but I expected so much more from someone who also wrote "through the naturalist's eyes a sparrow can be as interesting as a bird of Paradise, the behavior of a mouse as intriguing as that of a tiger..." and who claimed that his desire for his own zoo came from the "heartbreaking" process of passing animals on to other zoos, where he could not look out for them. It leaves me very curious as to what sort of person he really was.
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An interesting book of you suspend your prejudice against imperialistic white Englishmen running all over the planet removing animals from their natural habitats with the hopes of putting them on display for other white Englishmen to ogle. I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek. If you can get past this it is a fun book.
Durrell was a product of his time and culture. He was more advanced than many, and the environmental movement owes a lot to him. -
It seems to me that the stresses of writing a book and creating a new zoo with little or no planning did in fact make Durrell callous towards animals. I don't like the term "anthropomorphizing", especially coming from a reputed animal lover. It has the British taint of defining empathy out of existence. It sounds as if someone is suggesting we should treat animals as equals.
This may explain why Durrell is shocked by a "weird woman" who asks him if chimpanzees have souls. Another word he uses too often is "wretched," to describe animals who remain wild and unpredictable, while also insulting owl intelligence, though I've heard that one before. One doormouse which has its tail torn off being chased by a colleague is dropped back into the wilderness, though it keeps returning to be fed with its friends in the cages.
As other reviews have pointed out, his haphazard planning and collecting style puts a lot of animals in danger. He shows up in England with hundreds of animals and nowhere to put them for winter. The strangest part is: in the epilogue, his zoo has been running for more than a year in the Channel Islands, with more than 600 animals, but he makes no effort to describe the special animals or the whereabouts of the ones we've already met. Is his zoo still running, some 60 years later? I really have to doubt it.
Pg. 58
My third Gerald Durrell. Light reading, heavy on visual descriptions and ridiculous co-conspirators, this one seems more condescending than usual, even though I'm in a town full of miserable people who it might help to find funny.
The sad fact of the matter is that I learn very little about zoology from Durrell's books. It's not at all my intention to do so of course. But even the account of the sloppy African ranger who married the author of Born Free had more memorable zoologic details. Put the science in footnotes at least. See Max Webber for how to do it in a fascinating way...
Did Durrell ever write zoologic monographs, or was he really a late Victorian collector of anything that looked unusual or pretty? -
Я совершенно не объективна к Дарреллу, просто бесконечно люблю) но хочу отметить, что Багдасаров начитал отлично, хороший повод перечитать
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⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
A few months ago, I read and enjoyed Durrell's account of his younger life with his family on the Greek island of Corfu,
My Family and Other Animals. Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. A ZOO IN MY LUGGAGE is an account of one of Durrell's animal collecting expeditions in 1957 to the Bafut region of what is now Cameroon in Western Africa. This expedition resulted in Durrell's founding of the Jersey Zoo.
Durrell spent six months collecting various animals while being the guest of the Fon of Bafut who refers to the local fauna as "beef" as part of the "pigeon English" spoken by the locals there. The book recounts many amusing anecdotes related to the collection of several exotic species. At the beginning of the book while Durrell is on the way to Bafut, he obtained his first animal, a baby black-footed mongoose from a local villager. Durrell had no easy way to transport the animal so he kept it in his shirt where the mongoose proceeded to urinate profusely! This is only the first of many sometimes humorous encounters with animals including lemurs, snakes, chimps, monkeys, and various birds. The book also describes his encounters with the locals including the chief of Bafut called the Fon. The dialog in the narrative includes a lot of the "Pigeon English" which was somewhat distracting and could be perceived as racist by today's politically correctness.
But overall, I did find this quite informative and it definitely provided a few chuckles. There were some great descriptions of animals and birds that I had not heard of before. This included an excursion to observe a rare bird called the
Picathartes, which "was about the size of a jackdaw...with a unique head completely bare of feathers: the forehead and top were a vivid sky blue, the back a bright pink, while the side and cheeks were black."
Durrell was especially keen on trying to prevent the extinction of animals and worked as a conservationist. This book was published in 1960 and 60 years later, zoos have taken a lot of criticism. The caging of animals and transporting them from their natural environment probably is not the best way to conserve them; however, at the time Durrell had the best of intentions. In his opinion, "zoological gardens should have as one of their main objects the establishment of breeding colonies for these rare and threatened species." I'm not sure how successful Durrell was in achieving some of his goals or what eventually happened to his zoo on Jersey Island although during his lifetime he did receive many honors and accolades for his conservation efforts. -
My low rating for this will disappoint people, because I know this is a well-loved book (from a well-loved author and figure). I was really looking forward to reading it - but it fell flat, for a few reasons. Immediately what got me was the antiquated tone towards the Cameroonian people. I know it was written in another time...and it shows. I am sure he respected them to some degree, but without explicitly saying it, it shows the opinion of what white British people thought of Africans at the time. The Cameroonians' actions were described with either a patronising tone or a tone of condescension - it just felt like someone describing the oddities of a toddler. The Fon of Bafut, for instance, was always just described as the Fon; he was seen as a simple man with many wives and a drinking problem, and someone with childlike reactions to any modern technology. As it happens, this was Achirimbi II, who was seen as both a controversial and progressive figure in his time, important for the shaping of independent Cameroon. You'd never get that from Durrell's description, which leads the reader to believe that he lodged with a simple, alcoholic tribal leader.
He also seemed to sarcastically describe everything his wife did; I'd say it had a tone of sexism but he was also sarcastic about both his assistants, male and female. I think he thought very highly of himself, which got very grating.
Reminding myself that it was a different time, I accepted the tone and attitude and carried on. There were a few dull points where he went into the administration of collecting animals and a few interesting stories, too. But his attitude towards the animals was condescending as well, and that really surprised me. It seemed like he was almost indifferent about their wellbeing if it was inconveniencing him - especially when it came to creating a zoo for them. Surely something pegged that it wasn't fair on the creatures to be locked up in a back garden in Bournemouth, or a basement to a department store. (Not to mention his attitude towards councils and people rejecting his request for a zoo - surely he should have sorted that out before he trapped hundreds of animals.) It seemed like his desire for a zoo wasn't just to study the animals he collected but was some sort of selfish move on his part.
That's basically what it boils down to - the book was not about the people he met; it was less about the animals (though he does share more details of them than he did of the Cameroonians) and more about his conquest and what he wanted. An interesting insight into attitudes of the time and into the process it took to capture animals, but I give it 2 stars for everything else. It was okay, but just okay. -
ENGLISH: This is the fifth time I've read this book, which relates his third expedition to Cameroon, this time to collect animals for his own zoo. Characteristically, Durrell travelled to collect his animals before even trying to find a place to build his zoo, therefore he was left for some time, as the title says, with "a zoo in his luggage".
ESPAÑOL: Esta es la quinta vez que leo este libro, que cuenta su tercera expedición al Camerún, esta vez para recolectar animales para su propio zoológico. De manera característica, Durrell marchó a recoger los animales antes de buscar un sitio adecuado para construir su zoo, por lo que durante un tiempo tuvo que llevar, como dice el título, "un zoo en su equipaje". -
This is the first in The Zoo Memoirs Trilogy by Gerald Durrell, originally published in 1960. The follow-up to A Zoo in My Luggage is “The Whispering Land”. I’m not sure if the publisher, Open Road Media, has thrown in another book as a selling point for it to be a Trilogy, but the third book is called “Menagerie Manor”.
Gerald Durrell (1925 - 1995) was born in India and grew up loving to study wildlife. His writing is very easy and his stories of the animals they collected over the years are quite humorous. I was just a little put off and couldn’t quite understand his use of native African dialogue at times.
You will find a photo of him, at age 10, all dressed up in his exploration garb at the back of the book, along with 13 other photos of himself throughout his life’s work.
He was a British naturalist, and I would say a writer and a little bit of an artist as well, whose main goal was to educate the people so they would have a better understanding and care for wild and nearly extinct animals. He had gathered animals in Bafut, Camaroon, Africa, before for other zoo owners, but now he wanted his own zoo. So, he headed back to Bafut with his wife, along with his secretary, Sophie, and another naturalist, Bob, and they stayed at the Fon of Bafut’s place, while he paid the local native hunters to gather wild and rare animals, birds, insects, and rodents. He accepted only about 10% of what they found, the rest were let lose back into the wild. He also paid the local native children daily to go out and hunt for snails, birds’ eggs, beetle larvae, grasshoppers, spiders, rats, etc…to feed his growing menagerie, which was around 250 by the time they left Africa and headed home with “a zoo in their luggage”.
The trials and hardships of them dealing with all of these animals makes for a great story. All of the thought that had to go into the daily feedings and cleanings, and the preparation for them to travel back to Bournemouth, England, with all those animals was quite remarkable. He had no place to put the animals so temporarily set them up in his sister’s backyard. He would later, in a stroke of luck, find the perfect place in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. Today, there is a bronze statue of Durrell that stands at the entrance to the Jersey Zoo, now called Durrell Wildlife Park. -
I was excited to begin this read of Gerald Durrell, founder of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, an incredible Non-Profit Organization. However, I was pretty shocked at how Durrell's writing, in this particular book, stereotyped the Africans that he encountered (to put it mildly!) Today, conservationists typically don't think it's a great idea to roam the countryside, stealing rare baby animals from their mothers, to put into cages and bring back to the collector's homeland with little idea of what the animal ate, it's roll in the environment, it's needs....etc. It is shocking to read of how Durrell began collecting in this exact manner. I do understand that this was a different day and age, and I am grateful that our notion of conservation has evolved to include the ecosystems that animals thrive in, as well as consideration of the animals themselves. Perhaps Durrell's laster writings are more insightful, but this one left me feeling terrible about Durrell's beginnings.
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I've always loved Gerald Durrell's writing, even more than his brother Lawrence's. This is a superb account of Gerald's African quest for critter to populate his own zoo. The African characters are delightful and tales of the animals are so funny as well as educational.
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This book was much more difficult to read than My Family and Other Animals, and I'll tell you why in a minute. But first, the good stuff: Durrell knows how to set up a yarn, especially a funny one. Even though I was expecting them, there were a few moments when I laughed out loud. Once, I was caught totally off guard by a funny line, and, since I unfortunately had just taken a sip of cider, literally choked and spit it everywhere while laughing. The stories in this book are funny, and the love he has for animals is apparent on every page.
What made this hard to read was not the writing or plot or anything literary. It was the blatant sexism and imperialism. I know that Durrell was a product of his time, and that many expeditions looked like this: barging into some African "wilderness," taking whatever you wanted, paying over the African market value but still not fair value for what you wanted, and otherwise promoting your white self and customs above the natives'. Durrell clearly was fond of and respectful of the African friends he had made, and did not seek to actively disadvantage the natives he employed/did business with, but it turned my stomach to read the way they interacted sometimes. The natives calling him "Masa" was especially hard to swallow, as was his condescending descriptions of the natives.
I know that the imperialism in this memoir is a sad fact of Africa's history. I know that Durrell was a product of his time, and did amazing things for the animal conversation movement. I intend to read all his other books, because I love the way he tells his stories. But as someone who cares about equality, I could not help but be ashamed about the underlying imperialist systems that allowed Durrell's plans to be successful. -
I like to read about animals and had seen the tv series "The Durrells of Cofu on PBS. I wanted to read one of Gerald Durrell's memoirs. I would give this a 3.5. He writes about traveling to Africa to collect animals of all kinds to start up a zoo. he uses a sense of humor to write about what he went through with his team to catch these animals of all kinds to start up his zoo. This is pretty good for the most part. kind of drags in parts but still fun to read of this man's love of all animals and getting them in the Zoo of his dreams.
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Enough good things can't be said about Gerald Durrell and his amazing (true) animal stories. Touching, clever, interesting, very witty and thoroughly compelling. I have seven of his books already, and my collection is steadily growing.
Highly recommended. -
great. used to read all Durrell books once upon a time.
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this book was brilliantly beautiful, and recommended to me by a dear friend.
i honestly can’t believe i’ve spent so long knowing so little about Mr Durrell — especially as a zoology student myself! luckily for me i have a huge collection of his work to read, roll on 2022 -
A couple's 6 month journey in 1957 to Cameroon, Africa for collecting animals and build a private zoo! Durrell's notion was to save animals close to extinction by bringing them into a colony.
I was uncomfortable with the idea of "saving" these animals by caging them!!!
The narration is funny, much of it due to the African accent and language. At times it made me wonder whether I am reading English!
And a few more funny situations created while capturing these "beef"!
Sample conversation:
On Hippo
"Sah, dat ipopo no be man… na woman dat."
"How do you know?"
"Masa, I savvay all dis ipopo for dis water,’ he explained, ‘dis one na woman. Ef na man ipopo ’e go chop us one time. But dis woman one no get strong head like ’e husband."
Quiz:
When you are waiting anxiously for news of your food supplies for the voyage it is not soothing to the nerves to receive a telegram which states:
‘MESSAGE REPLIED REGRET CANNOTOB VARY GREEN BALAS WELL HALF PIPE DO?’
Can you guess what it means? Write down in the comments before peeking in the spoiler :D
Overall:
It's supposed to be funny. But I neither liked the overall concept of capturing animals, and didn't find condescending of African speeches as funny! Sorry. -
The true and amusing tale of how Durrell went to the Cameroons to acquire animals for his own zoo, which was then set up on Jersey in the Channel Islands. It’s apparent how much Durrell loves wildlife, or at least collecting it; and he knows how to write with fluidity and humor. I think the story was marred by Durrell’s authorial ego (he criticizes his wife for clucking over and anthropomorphizing the cute animals, but he does it all the time himself; he assumes that collecting animals from their native habitat is a worthwhile endeavor, no debate about it), and by his colonialist tone. His conversations with the Africans (and between Africans themselves) are all reported in a babyish pidgin, which may be a droll device but gets old and smacks of European condescension. The last part of the book describes Durrell’s escapades with the animals in suburban Bournemouth, which is very funny, and even informative, when he reports some simian behavior. I would have liked for Durrell to give some details of his collisions with the local bureaucracy to set up a zoo in England, but then I suppose he’s not that kind of writer. All in all a cute, lightweight book, with minor flaws rooted in the point of view of Durrell’s generation and class.
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This is only the second Gerald Durrell book for me, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't find it as purely entertaining as
My Family and Other Animals. Durrell means to write with humor and a measure of humility, but unwittingly comes off as patronizing and even arrogant in his approach both to the Cameroons and to the animals he has come to collect. This is most unfortunate because I don't believe this to be an accurate characterization of the man whose lifework led to the founding of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.
I expect to read more of Durrell's books in the future, and perhaps read a biographical account of his life if there's a good one out there. For those readers who have criticized the man, his intentions, and contributions, I wish they would take a closer look. Durrell was instrumental in transforming the mindset and fundamental organization and operation of "zoological gardens" (aka, "zoos"). He wasn't perfect, but he cared deeply about animals and their well-being, and he dedicated his life to their preservation, preferably in their own native, natural habitats. -
An entertaining little bit of memoir from Durrell about his trip to Cameroon to collect exotic animals for the zoo he planned to establish back in England. He took the somewhat backwards approach of acquiring the animals first, then looking for a suitable location to exhibit them.
It’s an amusing read, just a series of anecdotes about catching (mostly buying from the locals, actually), housing, feeding, nursing and photographing the animals.
He also writes a good bit about his host in Cameroon, a potentate with a great many wives and children and a fondness for strong drink (which Durrell seems to have shared). This takes place in 1957, and the dialog in West African pidgin is awkward, although Durrell does not strike me as particularly condescending. -
3.5*
I enjoyed this nonfiction book but don't think it was quite as good as some of the other Gerald Durrell books I have read. Maybe I should have read it rather than listening to the audiobook... -
Очередная замечательная книжка о животных. Действие на этот раз происходит в Камеруне, куда Даррелл отправился, чтобы набрать животных для собственного зоопарка. Когда я услышала, что натуралист решил сначала набрать животных, привезти их в Англию, и только потом искать место для зоопарка, я подумала, что он шутит или приукрашивает. Но нет, так оно и было! В Англии животные какое-то время жили в доме и саду его сестры Маргарет в Борнемуте, пока Даррелл договаривался с местными властями о зоопарке. Бедовый человек, однако)
Основные герои "Зоопарка" - разные виды приматов: от галаго и бабуинов до мартышек и орангутангов. Мне кажется, что Даррелл питал особую слабость к приматом. Но много интересного есть и о других животных: совах, лягушках, сонях, белках. Особенно улыбнула глава о киносъемках и гордой сове, отворачивающейся от камеры. Рекомендую всем, кто хочет немного расслабиться и от души посмеяться. Можно читать с детьми 😊 -
"A Zoo in My Luggage" - written by Gerald Durrell and originally published in 1960 by Viking Press. This short, humorous book chronicles some of Durrell's memories from a 1957 wildlife collecting trip in the British Cameroons in West Africa. His aims were to share the animals with those who might otherwise never encounter them, and also to preserve species in danger of extinction. The anecdotes were amusing - Durrell intereacted personally with whatever was collected and it was rarely a peaceful camp. As they prepared to sail for England, a sailor helping to load the ship told him, "Blimey! You're the first chap I've ever met with a zoo in his luggage." Feelings about zoos are divisive, but seeing my grandchildren's interest and amazement at our Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is a positive on their side. And yes, Durrell is related to Lawrence Durrell, his brother!
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This book was first published in 1960. Although I enjoyed Gerald Durrell's stories of his incredibly fascinating and sometimes funny adventures in W. Africa Cameroons, I found the writing, unfortunately, very 'dated'. I had a problem with that for two reasons:
1- His interaction with the local Africans I found disturbing. They all call this English gentleman "Masa" and he in turn acts above them in his demeanor. I understand that was the sign of the times but it pissed me off greatly.
2- Although the animal stories were interesting, I read this with the understanding that this was a massive and intense capture operation of rare and exotic animals. The relocation efforts to move these creatures from their natural habitats to imprison them in cages far away from what they know can be a tumultuous undertaking. This could be an extremely frightening experience for any of these creatures and there is always the chance that they could get sick and possibly die. Per Gerald's statement, "If I can even slightly help prevent an animal from becoming extinct, I will be content.", I understand all the pros and cons but still feel like these creatures should be left to dwell in their natural habitats.
Although I found the stories interesting and entertaining, I honestly found them to at times be shocking and cruel. -
"The true and hilarious story of how Gerald Durrell and his wife set up their own zoo.
"Journeying to the Cameroons he and his wife, helped by the renowned Fon of Bafut, managed to collect 'plenty beef.' Their difficulties began when they found themselves back home, with Cholmondely (Chumley Sinjin) the chimpanzee, Bug-eye the bush-baby, and other founder-members ... and nowhere to put them."
~~back cover
Imho that's a rather misleading synopsis of this book; most of it is devoted to tales of the exciting or dangerous or funny or sweet details of collecting expeditions, or "beef" brought to the Durrells, or the strong camaraderie between the Fon and the author. The last two chapters are indeed about the rigors of trying to find a space for the zoo the Durrells wished to start, but the main thrust of the book is further adventures in the Cameroons.
It was a great read, with several laugh-out-loud moments. -
This book is about how Gerald Durrell traveled to Cameroon to find and catch rare animals to study.
As I ordered this second-hand, I only remembered how much fun My Family And Other Animals was and looked if they had something by the author, sorted by the most inexpensive results first. I decided on two books, this one and Beasts in my Belfry.
Then I saw that this book here was published in 1960, that it's about a white guy travelling to West Africa, and for a moment I was afraid there would be racist content. Gerald, I'm sorry I doubted you.
He treats the people he meets with utmost respect, both when face to face and when writing about the encounters later. He doesn't patronise them, their language, or their customs and is above all curious and eager to make friends. This also extends to the animals he adopts.
Game plan: Get my hands on as many of his books as possible, and also get some in German translation because my father needs to see this. -
Ojalá hubiera hecho caso a mis padres antes y me hubiera animado hace años con Gerald Durrell. Como siempre lo he hecho tarde y mal y he empezado por el primer libro que he pillado y no por los primeros que hablan de su infancia. Aún así lo he disfrutado muchísimo, me ha despertado inquietudes y me ha hecho entender muchas cosas. Está escrito con mucho humor y a la vez mucha sensibilidad. Me da la sensación de que describe las cosas con exactamente las palabras adecuadas y las metáforas perfectas en cada caso. Leerlo ha sido un auténtico placer y a la vez me ha hecho replantearme muchas cosas. Creo que todo el mundo debería leer a Durrell, si te gustan los animales y, sobre todo, si no te gustan.
