How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist

A new adventure story by Gerald Durrell is always good news. In How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist, he describes a yearlong expedition he undertook, with his wife, Lee, and a BBC film crew, to shoot the television series "The Amateur Naturalist."

The Durrells' trip took them "from the Canadian Rockies to Panama, from South Africa to the northernmost tip of the British Isles." Along the way they encountered a variety of exotic animals, including rare birds, spider monkeys, and even a white rhino. They traveled by steam engine, which Gerald Durrell remembers as a favorite treat from his childhood, and they rode in the hot-air balloon in which they are pictured on the back of this book. They also received an occasionally frustrating, often hilarious crash course in the art of filmmaking.

Whether he's surrounded by the English countryside, the Sonoran desert, or the Ionian sea, Gerald Durrell always finds rare and wonderful exam- ples of flora and fauna, and his precise, lush descriptions capture them per- fectly. Indeed, Durrell brings to all the life he observes - even human life-his own inimitable curiosity, wit, and zest. As his many fans already know, he's the ideal armchair traveling companion.

How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist is a cornucopia of that special blend of comedy, lighthearted adventure, travel, and natural history that is uniquely Gerald Durrell's.