Myself & Other Animals
Gerald Durrell (Viking)

The conservationist Gerald Durrell’s first dog, Simon, was a coward. To the honey-coloured cocker spaniel, a garden hose was as deadly as a spitting cobra, and he once went into a nervous decline lasting several days after unexpectedly encountering a snowman.

It is nuggets like this that make Durrell’s writings so appealing. Anthropomorphised as his descriptions of animals often are, they combine keen observation with humour in a way that shows just how well he could understand what made animals tick and how to bring them to life on the page.…