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The Overloaded Ark
''The Overloaded Ark'', first published in 1953, is the debut book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It is the chronicle of a six-month collecting trip, from December 1947 to August 1948, to the West African colony of British Cameroonnow Cameroonthat Durrell made with aviculturist and ornithologist John Yealland. Their reasons for going on the trip were twofold: "to collect and bring back alive some of the fascinating animals, birds, and reptiles that inhabit the region", and secondly, for both men to realise a long cherished dream to see Africa. Its combination of comic exaggeration and environmental accuracy, portrayed in Durrell's light, clever prose, made it a great success. It launched Durrell's career as a writer of both non-fiction and fiction, which in turn financed his work as a zookeeper and conservationist. '' The Bafut Beagles'' and ''A Zoo in My Luggage'' are sequels of sorts, telling of his later returns to the region. History Durrell had married Jacqueline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biographical Novel
The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fictional genre, the novel. These reimagined biographies are sometimes called semi-biographical novels, to distinguish the relative historicity of the work from other biographical novels The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s with best-selling works by authors such as Robert Graves, Thomas Mann, Irving Stone and Lion Feuchtwanger. These books became best-sellers, but the genre was dismissed by literary critics. In later years it became more accepted and has become both a popular and critically accepted genre. Some biographical novels bearing only superficial resemblance to the historical novels or introducing elements of other genres that supersede the retelling of the historical narrative, for example ''Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter'' fol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faber & Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Milan Kundera, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Founded in 1929, in 2006 the company was named the KPMG Publisher of the Year. Faber and Faber Inc., formerly the American branch of the London company, was sold in 1998 to the Holtzbrinck company Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG). Faber and Faber ended the partnership with FSG in 2015 and began distributing its books directly in the United States. History Faber and Faber began as a firm in 1929, but originates in the Scientific Press, owned by Sir Maurice and Lady Gwyer. The Scientific Press derived much of its income from the weekly magazine ''The Nursing Mirror.'' The Gwyers' desire to expand into trade publishing led them to Geoffrey Fab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Durrell
Gerald Malcolm Durrell, (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. He wrote approximately forty books, mainly about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956). Those memoirs of his family's years living in Greece were adapted into two television series (''My Family and Other Animals'', 1987, and ''The Durrells'', 2016–2019) and one television film (''My Family and Other Animals'', 2005). He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell. Early life and education Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, British India, on 7 January 1925. He was the fifth and youngest child (an elder sister having died in infancy) of Louisa Florence Dixie and Lawrence Samuel Durrell, both of whom were born in India of English and Irish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Cameroon
British Cameroon or the British Cameroons was a British mandate territory in British West Africa, formed of the Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Today, the Northern Cameroons forms parts of the Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states of Nigeria, while the Southern Cameroons forms part of the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. History The area of present-day Cameroon was claimed by Germany as a protectorate during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century. The German Empire named the territory Kamerun. During World War I, French and British troops invaded the German colony Kamerun (Present day Cameroon) and decided to divide the German colony into two regions. One of the regions would be French administered (French Cameroon) and the other would be British administered (British Cameroon). The British were more concerned with other areas of Africa, specifically Nigeria. Thus, the French gained a larger portion of Cameroon when the country was divide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad, and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area ''Rio dos Camarões'' (''Shrimp River''), which became ''Cameroon'' in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Yealland
John James Yealland (1904 – 1983) was a noted British aviculturist and ornithologist. He is best remembered for helping Sir Peter Scott found the Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire. He accompanied Gerald Durrell on his first animal collecting expedition to the British Cameroon in 1947 - 1948. He went on to become the Curator of Birds, London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o .... References 1904 births 1983 deaths British ornithologists 20th-century British zoologists {{UK-ornithologist-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bafut Beagles
''The Bafut Beagles'' by British naturalist Gerald Durrell tells the story of Durrell's 1949 expedition to the Cameroons collecting animals for zoos, made with Kenneth Smith. Published in 1954, it was Durrell's third book for popular audiences. Particularly notable was his depiction of a native ruler, the Fon of Bafut, who proved so popular that Durrell visited him again in ''A Zoo in My Luggage''. The book portray the Fon mostly in a humorous fashion, discussing his polygamy, anglophile perspective, and high tolerance for alcohol, but also in more flattering ways. The Fon awarded Durrell the ceremonial dress and staff during his second expedition. The Fon, although not named, was Achirimbi II Achirimbi II was the tenth Fon ("King") who ruled over the town of Bafut and adjoining areas (the Fondom of Bafut) in a semi-autonomous fashion. His reign lasted from 1932 to 1968, and included the time of handover from the British trust territ .... References {{DEFAULTSORT:Bafut Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Zoo In My Luggage
''A Zoo in My Luggage'' by British naturalist Gerald Durrell is the story of Durrell's 1957 animal collecting trip to British Cameroon, the northwestern corner of present-day Cameroon. First published in 1960, it is one of a half-dozen books about animal collecting trips that Durrell wrote. The book tells the story of when Durrell went to the Cameroons and spent six months collecting various animals, referred to as "beef" in Pidgin English. He took part in various expeditions, including catching a Python (genus), python in a narrow cave, encountering a hippopotamus while traveling on the Cross River (Cameroon), Cross River, and so on. It is his third book describing trips to the region, following ''The Overloaded Ark'' and ''The Bafut Beagles''. Illustrations by Ralph Thompson (illustrator), Ralph Thompson. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoo in My Luggage Books by Gerald Durrell 1960 non-fiction books Books about Cameroon 1957 in British Cameroon Novels set in zoos British travel books Englis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacquie Durrell
Jacqueline Sonia Durrell (née Wolfenden; born 17 November 1929 in Manchester, United Kingdom) is a British author. Born Jacquie Wolfenden, she married naturalist Gerald Durrell and worked alongside him for many years. She assisted him on several of his animal collecting expeditions, and with Jersey Zoo that he founded. The Durrells divorced in 1979. Marriage to Gerald Durrell She was born Jacqueline Sonia Wolfenden. Jacquie was 19 when she met Gerald Durrell, during his first stay in her father's hotel in Manchester after an animal-collecting expedition. The two began dating, although initially Jacquie claimed that she was very reluctant to become Durrell's girlfriend. Jacquie's father did not approve of her relationship with Durrell, and was completely antipathetic towards the idea of the couple's marriage, chiefly because he considered that Durrell had no money and apparently no career prospects. Jacquie could not marry without her parents' permission until she was 21, so after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC developed two nationwide radio stations – the National Programme and the Regional Programme (which were begun broadcasting on 9 March 1930) – as well as a basic service from London that include programming originated in six regions. Although the programme items attracting the greatest number of listeners tended to appear on the National, the two services were not streamed: they were each designed to appeal "across the board" to a single but variegated audience by offering between them and at most times of the day a choice of programme type rather than simply catering, each of them exclusively, to two distinct audiences. 1939–1945: World War II On 1 September 1939, the BBC merged the two programmes into one national service from Lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Books By Gerald Durrell
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arrangement is ''codex'' (plural, ''codices''). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page. As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that it takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a self-sufficient section or part of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to be identified by the book it contained. Each part of Aristotle's ''Physics'' is called a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1953 Non-fiction Books
Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia. ** The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon. * January 15 – Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying. * January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into '' I Love Lucy'', to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record has yet to be broken. * January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is sworn in as the 34th President of the United States. * January 24 ** Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son). ** Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be collectiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
