Talk:Gerald Durrell

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I'd be much obliged is someone acquainted with Duerrell's works were to answer my question over at Talk:Tambalacoque. -Itai 22:09, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 vandalism 2 :) 3 To do 4 Length 5 Salters institute 6 This article is clumsily large

[edit] vandalism

It's weird the articles that get-a-life vandals choose to attack ... I wouldn't have thought Gerald Durrell would be high on the radar of people who like boring anti-gay jokes. I've blocked 195.188.250.67 for 48 hours, but whoever the vandal is, he/she/it is bouncing around and will probably come back. yawn - DavidWBrooks 13:26, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] :)

wow, I just created the Miskolc Zoo article, and I'm surprised to see that this article already refers to it :) sometimes I gotta just love Wikipedia :) Alensha 22:29, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] To do

Subsidiary articles to be polished:

• Jersey Zoological Park
• Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
• Edward Whitley

Article content:

• Arabian Oryx mention in the captive breeding section
• Trivia: Gerald Durrell side (?) of Corfu
• Mention of Spiro in Corfu ?
• ISBN for the books - be warned, laborious task

[edit] Length

This article is getting awfully, awfully long. It's time to think about breaking off pieces - the zoo and the trust, for example - so we can remove some of that material from this article, allowing it to concentrate on Gerald Durrell - DavidWBrooks 22:34, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

I think the major length of the article is due to the extensive bibliography and radiography. We could initially break those off and see. I will be updating the trust and the zoo articles, but the material on the biography about the zoo and the trust, i think, would need to be in the durrell article somehow - the vision for the trust was virtually exclusively durrell's, after all. Pradiptaray 23:14, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

The way to do that is to have just a sentence or two saying that he founded the zoo, and then a link saying "Main article: Jersey Zoo right there, so people can follow it if they want more. If they just want a quick sense of his life, or if they are looking for other material, such as his novels, they won't have to scroll through lots of material. - DavidWBrooks 14:20, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

But it's not as though it takes that long to scroll through the material. Plus isn't that why there are quick links at the top? To allow quick easy access to a list of his books, or to a particular part of his life? The Trust and the Zoo are what Gerry lived for, and I don't think that such an important part of his life should be reduced or removed from this article.

Yes, I think so too. And anyway most of the article has references, lists and tables, so the size isnt as awfully big as it seems. I did put in a few pics so that the lists dont seem bare, so it takes slightly long to load :) Pradiptaray 03:11, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

On a seperate note, I recently learnt that when the family moved to Corfu in 1935, Larry's first wife (Nancy Meyers) went with them. Does anyone know why she wasn't mentioned in any of Gerry's books about his childhood on the island? I'd have thought there would at least be some mention of her. Suggestions? ~~SM

I think I know the answer to that, I think I read it in Botting's biography, but I was reminded of it recently by a friend of mine, another Durrell fan. It was a ploy by Gerry to show his family as a single entity, which would never have been possible had nancy been there, in which case he would have had to have larry and nancy living separately. btw, if u r a durrell fan, u r more than welcome to contribute ! there is a lot of work left. get yourself a wikipedia id, and sign ur name in discussions like this by 4 ~ s ( like ~ ~ ~ ~ ), so that it is easier to communicate :) Pradiptaray 03:11, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Salters institute

Does anyone have details about the annual Gerald Durrell lecture ? I can only see the 2002 talk on the web. Pradiptaray 06:57, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This article is clumsily large

I lost the discussion above, but a year later - and even though I'm a lifelong Gerry Durrell fan (I met him once) - I still think this article is way too long and should be broken into sub-articles, with some of the photos and most of the book covers removed. (Have pity on readers with dial-up connections!) As a point of reference, this article is 47 kb, while William Shakespeare is 45 kb! - DavidWBrooks 22:03, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably because we do not have quite as many images of the bard, for some reason. We should probably prune a few from this article. Question is, which ones? Jonathunder 22:17, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I just removed one - we had several of him with primates; now we have fewer. Another idea - remove all the book covers except one. They belong with the article about the book. - DavidWBrooks 22:44, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, Ill try and do so, meanwhile David has made a start :) ray 06:33, 5 January 2007 (UTC)