Zoo In My Luggage

Fans of Gerald Durrell’s timeless classic My Family and Other Animals, which was the inspiration for The Durrells in Corfu on Masterpiece PBS, will love this hilarious tale that finds the author as an adult still charmed by his beloved animals.

A Zoo in My Luggage begins with an account of Durrell’s third trip to the British Cameroons in West Africa, during which he and his wife capture animals to start their own zoo. Returning to England with a few additions to their family—Cholmondeley the chimpanzee, Bug-eye the bush baby, and others—they have nowhere to put them as they haven’t yet secured a place for their zoo. Durrell’s account of how he manages his menagerie in all sorts of places throughout England while finding a permanent home for the animals provides as much adventure as capturing them.

For animal lovers of all ages, A Zoo in My Luggage is the romping true story of the boy who grew up to make a Noah’s Ark of his own.

Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1925. A student of zoology, he founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust on the Channel Island of Jersey. He wrote many books about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being My Family and Other Animals, which was the inspiration for the Masterpiece PBS series The Durrells in Corfu. He passed away in 1995.