Menagerie Manor

A chance visit to Jersey changed the life of Gerald Durrell and of countless wildlife species across the world, reveals Holly Kirkwood

- Holly Kirkwood

WHEN Gerald Durrell landed on Jersey in the summer of 1958, his adventures as a naturalist, environmentalist, writer and documentary maker had taken him to some of the most remote places on Earth, but this was his first visit to the Channel Islands. He’d been looking for a place where he could pursue his life’s greatest work and his search was about to come to an end.

Durrell was a passionate naturalist and an early advocate for wildlife conservation. His formative years, spent with his family on the Greek island of Corfu, had ignited his enthusiasm for the natural world, as well as providing the material for his most popular books. My Family and Other Animals (1956) was an instant bestseller and endeared the whole Durrell clan to generations of readers.