Menagerie Manor

Menagerie Manor
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2016-12-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1504042603

The beloved naturist and author of My Family and Other Animals shares the pleasures and pitfalls of opening a zoo on the English Channel Island of Jersey. Spurred by his passion for animals and a lifelong dream, in the spring of 1959 Gerald Durrell opened the Jersey Zoo—now known as the Durrell Wildlife Park—on the grounds of an old manor house. The menagerie provided a safe habitat for rare and endangered species and exposed its human visitors to the wonders of nature. Dealing with escapee animals and overdrawn bank accounts, Durrell soon discovered that owning and operating a fledgling zoo was no easy task. But despite the setbacks, these charming, often hilarious stories make clear that, for Durrell, ensuring the park’s success and helping the creatures he loved so dearly was worth any obstacle. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

Encounters with Animals

Encounters with Animals
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2012-09-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0141971304

'I once travelled back from Africa on a ship with an Irish captain who did not like animals. This was unfortunate, because most of my luggage consisted of about two hundred odd cages of assorted wildlife . . .' Gerald Durrell's accounts of the animals he encountered on his travels were some of the first widely shared descriptions of the world's most extraordinary animals. Moving from the West Coast of Africa to the northern tip of South America - and elsewhere - Durrell observes the courtships, wars and characters of a variety of creatures, from birds of paradise, to ants and anteaters, among others. Told with his trademark charm and humour, Gerald Durrell's Encounters with Animals is a uniquely entertaining exploration of some of the world's most striking landscapes and the wildlife it is home to.

The Animals At Lockwood Manor

The Animals At Lockwood Manor
Author: Jane Healey
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0358105250

A debut novel for fans of Sarah Perry and Kate Morton: when a young woman is tasked with safeguarding a natural history collection as it is spirited out of London during World War II, she discovers her new manor home is a place of secrets and terror instead of protection. In August 1939, thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright arrives at Lockwood Manor to oversee a natural history museum collection whose contents have been taken out of London for safekeeping. She is unprepared for the scale of protecting her charges from party guests, wild animals, the elements, the tyrannical Major Lockwood, and Luftwaffe bombs. Most of all, she is unprepared for the beautiful and haunted Lucy Lockwood. For Lucy, who has spent much of her life cloistered at Lockwood, suffering from bad nerves, the arrival of the museum brings with it new freedoms. But it also resurfaces memories of her late mother and nightmares in which Lucy roams Lockwood, hunting for something she has lost. When the animals appear to move of their own accord and exhibits go missing, Hetty and Lucy begin to wonder what exactly it is that they might need protection from. And as the disasters mount, it is not only Hetty’s future employment that is in danger but her own sanity. There’s something, or someone, in the house. Someone stalking her through its darkened corridors . . .

Lacybourne Manor

Lacybourne Manor
Author: Kristen Ashley
Publisher: Kristen Ashley
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2011-08-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1465784349

In 1522, the very night they were wed, Royce Morgan and his new bride, Beatrice Godwin, were murdered on their way home to Lacybourne Manor. After the cruel deed was done, a local witch came across their bodies, witnessing firsthand the tragedy of star-crossed lovers. Vowing that Royce and Beatrice would someday uncross those stars, using magic mixed with murder as well as true love, she linked their spirits together with hers (because someone had to protect them) forever… or until their reincarnated souls find happily ever after. Now arrogant, forbidding Colin Morgan lives at Lacybourne, knowing, from lore (as well as the portraits of Royce and Beatrice that hang in Lacybourne’s hall and the small fact that he looks exactly like Royce Morgan), that he is the reincarnated soul of his ancestor. One stormy night, flighty, free-spirited, scarily kind-hearted Sibyl Godwin comes to Lacybourne and it doesn’t escape Colin’s notice that Sibyl is the spitting image of Beatrice. However murder, magic, a warrior’s heart beating in a modern man’s chest, a woman bent on doing good deeds even if they get her into loads of trouble, a good witch whose family has vowed throughout the centuries to protect true love, distrust and revenge make a volatile cocktail. This means the path to happily ever after is paved with tranquiliser darts, pensioners on a rampage, Sibyl’s bad morning moods, heartbreaking misunderstandings and all kinds of magic, good… and bad.

Catch Me a Colobus

Catch Me a Colobus
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2011-12-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1447214129

A pot-pourri of humorous animal anecdotes concocted by the famous wildlife lover, leading conservationist and award-winning author of My Family and Other Animals. Endearingly funny, occasionally outrageous, Catch me a Colobos is classic Gerald Durrell. Hectic, hilarious days at his Jersey zoo and forays to various corners of the earth to rescue animal species in danger of extinction provide a series of wonderful stories that are wry, witty and wonderful. Apes get loose, tigers get pregnant and women fall by the droves for a handsome zoo keeper . . .

A Zoo in My Luggage

A Zoo in My Luggage
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2016-11-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1504041658

A British naturalist and his wife acquire a menagerie of animals and set up their own zoo in this delightful memoir by the author of the Corfu Trilogy. For many years I had wanted to start a zoo. . . . Any reasonable person smitten with an ambition of this sort would have secured the zoo first and obtained the animals afterwards. But throughout my life I have rarely if ever achieved what I wanted by tackling it in a logical fashion. After a decade of supplying creatures for other people’s zoos, in 1957 Gerald Durrell and his wife set off on an adventurous journey to the Cameroons in West Africa, where they collected numerous mammals, birds, and reptiles. The wild nature of the animals created quite a bit of chaos, but the Durrells’ problems really began when they attempted to return to Britain with their exotic new friends. Not only did they have to get them safely home, they also had to find somewhere able and—more importantly—willing to house them. Told with wit and a zest for all things furry and feathered, Durrell’s A Zoo in My Luggage is a brilliant account of how a pioneer of wildlife preservation came to found a new type of zoo. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

The Whispering Land

The Whispering Land
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2016-11-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1504041690

Naturalist Gerald Durrell recalls his expedition to South America to find exotic animals in this follow-up to A Zoo in My Luggage. After bringing multiple species of African animals back to the Channel Island of Jersey to populate their new zoo, British naturalist Gerald Durrell and his wife followed their passion for wildlife preservation on a journey to South America. With a team of helpers, they spent eight months on safari searching for exotic specimens. Through windswept Patagonian shores and tropical forests in the Argentine, from ocelots to penguins, fur seals to parrots to pumas, the author who inspired the public television drama The Durrells in Corfu captures the landscape and its inhabitants with his signature charm and humor. Filled with adventure, exploration, and the spirit of conservation, The Whispering Land is a memoir that animal lovers of all ages will enjoy. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

Enslaved by Ducks

Enslaved by Ducks
Author: Bob Tarte
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2004-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1565124502

The book that Entertainment Weekly called "hilarious," Publishers Weekly declared "a true pleasure," Booklist called "heartwarming," and the Dallas Morning News praised as "rich and funny" is now available in paperback. When Bob Tarte bought a house in rural Michigan, he was counting on a tranquil haven. Then Bob married Linda. She wanted a rabbit, which seemed innocuous enough until the bunny chewed through their electrical wiring. And that was just the beginning. Before long, Bob found himself constructing cages, buying feed, clearing duck waste, and spoon-feeding a menagerie of furry and feathery residents. His life of quiet serenity vanished, and he unwittingly became a servant to a relentlessly demanding family. "They dumbfounded him, controlled and teased him, took their share of his flesh, stole his heart" (Kirkus Reviews). Whether commiserating with Bob over the fate of those who are slaves to their animals or regarding his story as a cautionary tale about the rigors of animal ownership, readers on both sides of the fence have found Tarte's story of his chaotic squawking household irresistible--and irresistibly funny.