A Zoo In My Luggage - Gerald Durrell

★★

Read : January 2014

"A Zoo in My Luggage begins with an account of Durrell's third trip to the British Cameroon's 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."

Tiring of collecting animals for others, Durrell and his wife set about collecting for a zoo of their very own. We follow them through their journey of the Cameroon's where they capture as many werid and wonderful beasts and they can carry. After finding all of their animals they return to the UK and begin the task of finding a site to set up their zoo, a task much harder and more frustrating than it sounds.

It took me a long time to get through Durrell's novel as I just couldn't get into it. Whilst I found learning about the animals and their habits and escapades fascinating the whole book felt a little disjointed. I couldn't help thinking that, while Durrell's tales were fantastic and intriguing, he just wasn't the right person to tell them. That being said, you could feel his passion and knowledge for the animals jump right off the pages at you as you read, which was wonderful.

A lot of the book was written in Pidgin English (whilst he was in West Africa) which became a bit distracting and 'hard going' at points but added a lot to the story and gave a more accurate glimpse into the British Cameroon's and Durrell's travels through it.

Overall I thought it was a good book with wonderful tales but it all felt a little disjointed and fell a little flat for me. I gave it 2 stars but I would say it's more of a 2½, purely for Durrell's passion and love for the wonderful animals he collects and cares for.