Gerald Durrell was: Ossie the ostrich, more books, Mark Hamill

[Heather Hettick]

Tabouli wrote:

<<My childhood hero (if not crush) was Gerald Durrell, and I was
grief-stricken that I never got to meet him before he died in 1995.
Marvellous man, flaws his biographies reveal notwithstanding.  Love those
tales of his family in Greece...>>

Wow, I don't know of too many Gerald Durrell fans besides myself!  My best
friend and I actually made it to his zoo on the Isle of Jersey in 1979, as
we were living somewhat nearby, in Sicily.  We disguised it as an official
Girl Scout trip - with stops at some Girl Scout convention in southern
Germany, Our Chalet in Switzerland and Paris for Michelle, the third member
of our small GS group.

Betsy and I just missed talking to him because we were enthralled with
watching the fruit bats, who were just waking up eating, while our
chaperones and Michelle waited outside for us on a bench, recovering from
our hydrofoil trip over from France.  Gerald Durrell came by them on his way
out somewhere and talked briefly with them, and we were furious that they
hadn't come in and got us so we could meet him.  By the time we came out of
the bat house and they told us, he had already left.

Heather Hettick