Gerald Durrell

The distant coastline of Albania was dimly outlined by a faint reddish glow in the sky.

With the summer came Peter to tutor me, a tall, handsome young man, fresh from Oxford,

This room - which I called my study, and which the rest of the family called the Bug House - smelt pleasantly of ether and methylated spirits.

he was christened Ulysses.

we would make our way down through the trees to the creaking wooden jetty, and clamber into the Sea Cow.

Amid much cheering Mother removed her housecoat and stood revealed in all her glory, clad in the bathing-costume which made her look, as Larry pointed out, like a sort of marine Albert Memorial.

Eventually, after we had partaken of a glass of wine to celebrate and recover from what Larry referred to as Perseus's rescue of Andromeda,

I said I wanted a boat.

'Call it the Ark' said Leslie, but I shook my head.

Arbuckle,' suggested Mother vaguely.