His politics had in fact moved far towards the right — opinions he shared with Lawrence Durrell, a close friend since the 1950s — but he had felt shut out by the British establishment after his T. E. Lawrence book.

Mrs Durrell moved with her three younger children ( Leslie, Margaret, nicknamed Margo, and Gerald ) to the Greek island of Corfu in 1935, following her oldest son Lawrence who had already moved there with his wife.

In Jersey, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in partnership with the States of Jersey and the National Trust for Jersey began a project in 2010, aimed at restoring selected areas of Jersey ’ s coastline with the intention of returning those birds that had become locally extinct.

Durrell maintained " he had started off like a good cook with three ingredients which, delicious alone, were even better in combination: namely, the spellbinding landscape of a Greek island before tourism succeeded in spoiling it for tourists ; his discovery of and friendship with the wild denizens, both animal and Greek, of that island ; and the eccentric conduct of all members of his family.

The Western Lowland Gorilla family has been represented at Durrell since it first opened in 1959, when they had only an infant female gorilla named N ' Pongo, who was later joined by a younger infant female gorilla named Nandi, and continue today to be one of the icons of the park.

Durrell took the risk of taking a recent clutch of eggs and had them hatched successfully-rebuilding the species, almost from scratch.

As usual he was well liked, and according to Lawrence Durrell often had a string of disreputable friends with him.

The book was written in 1955 in Bournemouth, where Durrell was recuperating from a severe attack of jaundice.

* Puppy Tales ( written by Gerald Durrell ), ( Andrex, 1993 )

The Unit also collaborated with Gerald Durrell on several films of his animal-collecting expeditions, beginning with the studio-based series ' To Bafut for Beef ' ( April 1958 ), using African footage shot by Durrell.

In the same year, Durrell undertook another, more successful expedition to South America to collect endangered species.

Its comic exaggeration of the foibles of his family — especially his eldest brother Lawrence Durrell, who later became a famous novelist — and heartfelt appreciation of the natural world made it very successful.

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is undergoing a successful breeding program since 1995 after a failed attempt in 1993 due to capturing four ducks which turned out to be all male.

Miller's correspondence with Durrell was later published in two books.

Many books and documentaries detailing the plight of the Kakapo have been produced in recent years, one of the earliest being Two in the Bush, made by Gerald Durrell for the BBC in 1962.

He founded what is now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo ( now Durrell Wildlife Park ) on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1958, but is perhaps best remembered for writing a number of books based on his life as an animal collector and enthusiast.

He has illustrated the Puppy series of board books by Gerald Durrell, commissioned by the Beanie Baby manufacturer Andrex.

The village was the home for some years of Lawrence Durrell, who wrote about life in Cyprus in his book Bitter Lemons.

Despite the omissions and inaccuracies, Lawrence Durrell commented " This is a very wicked, very funny, and I'm afraid rather truthful book — the best argument I know for keeping thirteen-year-olds at boarding-schools and not letting them hang about the house listening in to conversations of their elders and betters ".

Durrell left Whipsnade Zoo in May, 1946 in order to join wildlife collecting expeditions of the time, but was denied a place in the voyages due to his lack of experience.

Durrell reportedly recalled his first visit to a zoo in India and attributed his lifelong love of animals to that encounter.

Because of his dedication, Durrell housed and fed his captives with the best supplies obtainable, never over-collecting specimens, never trapping animals having merely " show value ", or those which would fetch high prices from collectors.

His animals were housed in her gardens and garage on a temporary basis, while Durrell sought prospective sites for a zoo.

Durrell founded the Jersey Zoological Park ( now Durrell Wildlife Park ) in 1958 to house his growing collection of animals.

Gerald Durrell began his career capturing animals for other zoos, but thought that the facilities needed to concentrate more on animal conservation rather than mere entertainment.

Opened in 1999, the Cloud Forest is the first enclosure at Durrell to feature mixed animals, including carnivorous species.

These animals are endangered and are only bred by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust at Durrell Wildlife Park.

Durrell ’ s headquarters in Jersey is a safe-haven for endangered animals which need to be rescued from whatever is threatening their survival in their native home.

Durrell works with local governments, communities and other conservation organisations in countries across the globe to save animals and their environments.

In 1969, he moved to Jersey, to work full time with the apes at Jersey Zoo ( now Durrell Wildlife Park ), but " became fed up of watching people watching animals " and relocated to north Cornwall, to make his living as a musician.

Since 2004, hundreds of captive-bred animals have been released into a preserve on Grand Cayman run by a partnership headed by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in an attempt to save the species.

* District Attorney Lloyd Burgess ( Michael Durrell ) – Chief district attorney for Fulton County ( 1986 – 1992 )

Other good sellers were Peter Fleming, Eric Linklater and Gerald Durrell ; but best-sellers were too few, and though the output of Rupert-Hart-Davis Ltd was regularly praised for the high quality of its printing and binding, that too was an expense that weighed the company down.

Difficult as it was in the war and post-war years to find a job, especially for a home-schooled youth, the enterprising Durrell worked as a helper at an aquarium and pet store.

Further, due to a falling-out with George Cansdale, superintendent of the London Zoo, Durrell was blackballed by the British zoo community and could not secure a job in most zoos, ultimately securing a job at the aquarium at Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester where he remained for some time.

While Durrell only made £ 50 from British rights ( Faber and Faber ), he obtained £ 500 from the United States rights ( Viking Press ) for the book, and thus managed to raise money for a fourth expedition to South America in 1954.

The success of the film To Bafut with Beagles, together with his popular and autobiographical radio programme Encounters with Animals, made Durrell a regular with the BBC Natural History unit for decades to come, as well as generating much-needed funds for his conservation projects.

* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness

* Eco-lodge cabins, which would allow people to stay at Durrell for a holiday, all environmental modern experience

* New Reptile and Amphibian Centre, which would allow Durrell to expand and enhance the care for species more prone to the changing environment

: Previously thought extinct, ( found when looking for something else ), Durrell have recently teamed up with Madagascar to help research and study the species.

In a 1959 Paris Review interview, Durrell described the ideas behind the Quartet in terms of a convergence of Eastern and Western metaphysics, based on Einstein's overturning of the old view of the material universe, and Freud's doing the same for the concept of stable personalities, yielding a new concept of reality.

Its headquarters are at Les Augrès Manor on the isle of Jersey in the English Channel, where what was originally called the Jersey Zoo, now the Durrell Wildlife Park, was established by Gerald Durrell in 1959 as a sanctuary and breeding centre for endangered species.