Biography

Gerald Durrell was born on January 7, 1925 in Jamshedpur, India. He was a writer and director, known for The Durrells (2016), Tarka the Otter (1979) and BBC2 Playhouse (1973). He was married to Lee Durrell and Jacqueline Sonia Rasen. He died on January 30, 1995 in Jersey, Channel Islands, UK.

Lived with his family on the Greek island of Corfu 1933-1939.

Named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1982.

Brother of novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell.

Durrell founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust in 1963 to operate a model captive-breeding zoo, a thirty-five-acre site on the Channel Island of Jersey. He had visited the Cameroons, Patagonia and other parts of Argentina to gather animals, and continued to travel in search of more when the zoo was operating smoothly.

Last name is pronounced DUHR-uhl.

[in 1979, on writing books] I try to get it over with as quickly as possible. Larry [his brother, Lawrence Durrell] writes for posterity, but I write for money--it provides me with the wherewithal to do the things I really like doing, which is rushing off to Mexico to catch volcano rabbits.