This note does not contain major spoilers for the book.

I've always thought of Gerald Durrell a little bit as my special secret fascinating writer, but I believe the book sales argue against that view. Though in fact darned few of the people I've tried to introduce to him had previously known about him. Oh, and remember that I don't think non-fiction books can be "spoiled".

I got both this and Durrell's own last book for Christmas, so it's being a bit of a Durrell fest just now.

Now he's unfortunately but inevitably dead, and here's his biography. This seems to be the good kind of "authorized" biography; where the estate is supporting a good biography, rather than trying to do damage control. Not that there's much damage telling the truth about his life would seem likely to do.

Oh, amusing; Durrell has been quoted as liking the Flanders and Swan animal songs, and "The Wild Boar" just turned up on shuffle-play here.

I'm very amused to learn that, in their early literary careers, Gerald was much more successful at least commercially than his brother Larry.

The biography is organized chronologically, and I've just gotten to the tenth anniversary of his wildlife preservation trust.

Okay, finished now; wow, lasted nearly a full month. I knew much less about his later life, having not read his later books so extensively, but no really big surprises. Sounds like he made a decent enough end. He certainly did a lot of good along the way, and helped get some big things moving.