My Family and Other Animals

Durrell had already written several successful books about his trips collecting animals in the wild for zoos when My Family and Other Animals came out in 1959. Its comic exaggeration of the foibles of his family - including brother Lawrence Durrell, who later became a famous novelist - and heartfelt appreciation of the natural world made it very successful, and helped launch Durrell's career as owner of the Jersey Zoological Park on the English Channel island of Jersey, as well as novel-writer and television personality.