The inspiration behind hit family drama The Durrells.

Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by Peter Olney, former Keeper of Birds at the London Zoo, and a distinguished ornithologist who was awarded the Zoological Society of London's Silver Medal in 2003.

My Family and Other Animals is Gerald Durrell's hilarious account of five years in his childhood spent living with his family on the island of Corfu. With snakes, scorpions, toads, owls and geckos competing for space with one bookworm brother and another who's gun-mad, as well as an obsessive sister, young Gerald has an awful lot of natural history to observe. This richly detailed, informative and riotously funny memoir of eccentric family life is a twentieth-century classic.

Gerald Durrell was a naturalist, author, media personality, conservationist and founder of both the internationally renowned Jersey Zoo and what is now known as the Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust. A passionate and inspiring advocate of the need for the conservation of animals and plants and their habitats, he was also a brilliant storyteller. His early family life forms the basis for the ITV drama, The Durrells.

Though he had almost no formal education he became a prolific writer, publishing numerous articles and thirty-seven books including Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods, before his death in 1995, aged seventy.