Editing Gerald Durrell (section)

== Late 1960s ==

=== Sierra Leone 1965 ===
In January 1964, Louisa died. Durrell was devastated.  He began to drink more: he had been advised to drink [[Guinness]] to combat anaemia, and began drinking a crate a day, and gaining weight.  Constant worries about the zoo's and Trust's finances and the pressures of the zoo's daily management began to cause problems for the Durrells' marriage; Jacquie "began to loathe the zoo", as she later recalled, and withdrew from many of the activities related to the zoo and the Trust.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 316–320.</ref>  In 1964, after a holiday in Corfu, Durrell and the BBC arranged a trip to Sierra Leone with the BBC to film a documentary about animal collecting.  Jacquie, who had not enjoyed her time in the Cameroons, refused to go, and instead went to Argentina to research a possible third collecting trip there.<ref>Botting (1999), p. 320.</ref>  Durrell set sail in January 1965, and from [[Freetown]] the expedition travelled to [[Kenema]] in the interior where they set up their base.  The animal collecting and filming went well, though it turned out to be particularly troublesome to catch [[Black-and-white colobus|colobus monkeys]]—one of the expedition's main goals.  Durrell injured his spine and broke two ribs in an incident with one of the [[Land Rover|Land Rovers]], and was in pain for the rest of the trip.  Jacquie came to Freetown to help him manage the trip back.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 320–322, 325–328.</ref>  The resulting series of six programmes was broadcast in early 1966 and was well reviewed: the ''Times Educational Supplement'' described it as "one more television classic in natural history".<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 330–331.</ref>

Both Gerald and Jacquie now began writing: Gerald turned the television series ''Two in the Bush'' into a book of the same name, and Jacquie wrote a humorous account of her life with Gerald, titled ''Beasts in My Bed''.<ref>Botting (1999), p. 329.</ref> Gerald followed this with his first fiction book, a story for children called ''The Donkey Rustlers''.  The Durrells spent mid-1966 in Corfu.  While they were there, ''Two in the Bush'' was published in the UK, once again to positive reviews.  They returned to Jersey in September, and then took a two-year lease on the Mazet, a house Lawrence owned near [[Nîmes]] in the south of France.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 330–333.</ref>  That winter, the zoo was again in desperate financial trouble: Durrell was able to persuade the bank not to foreclose on the property, and [[George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey|Lord Jersey]], a local aristocrat, covered the staff's wages for a few months to tide them over to the spring.<ref>Botting (1999), p. 334.</ref>  In early 1967 Durrell was featured in an episode of the BBC's series ''Animal People''.  He turned the manuscript of ''Rosy is My Relative'', his first novel, in to his publishers, and went to Corfu again for the summer.  The BBC filmed ''The Garden of the Gods'', a documentary about Durrell's childhood, while they were there.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 335–337.</ref>

=== Mexico 1968 and Australia 1969–1970 ===
[[File:Romerolagus diazi .jpg|alt=A dark rabbit facing the camera|thumb|Volcano rabbit]]
In late 1967 Durrell became interested in the [[volcano rabbit]], which was found only near [[Mexico City]].  The rabbit was endangered, and Durrell felt this was a good example of what the Trust might be able to do: captive breeding of a species endangered in the wild, to save it from extinction.  He and Jacquie sailed from [[Antwerp]] in January 1968, and after a short trip to the [[Guatemala–Mexico border|Guatemalan border]], looking for the endangered [[thick-billed parrot]], they returned to Mexico City.  The hunt brought in five rabbits, but all were female.  The expedition returned to Jersey in May, and eventually more rabbits, were found, including two males, but one died in transit to London, and the other died later at the zoo.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 338–341.</ref>

During the trip Durrell dictated a sequel to ''My Family and Other Animals'', titled ''[[Birds, Beasts, and Relatives]]'', and it was published in 1969; once again the reviews were glowing.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 341–342.</ref>  In late 1968 he and Jacquie visited Corfu again.  Durrell worked on a script for a film of ''My Family and Other Animals'', the film rights to which had been acquired by [[Albert Finney]] and [[Michael Medwin]], but the film was never made.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 344–345.</ref>  While there, he drank even more than usual, and the stress on his marriage increased.<ref name=":17" />  Jacquie later told a friend, "He becomes quite intolerable from the moment he sets foot on the quay, and realises it will never be what it was{{nbsp}}... That's why I loathe Corfu—for what it does to him now."<ref name=":17" /><ref>Hughes (1997), p. 72.</ref>  He was by turns depressed and angry.  They returned to Jersey, and  in early 1969, on medical advice he was admitted to The Priory, a clinic in [[Roehampton]], for three weeks.<ref name=":17">Botting (1999), pp. 348–349.</ref>  There he was diagnosed as an alcoholic<ref>Hughes (1997), p. 140.</ref> and put on a course of tranquillisers, but kept drinking, as his visitors often brought him alcohol, which the clinic did not forbid.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 349–350.</ref>  He was still on the tranquillisers when released, and returned to Corfu in April to rest further, finally coming back to Jersey in July.<ref name="auto">Botting (1999), p. 351.</ref>  Financially the news was better: film rights to Durrell's novel ''Rosy is My Relative'' sold for £25,000 (equivalent to £{{formatprice|{{inflation|UK|25000|1969|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}}), which wiped out all of Durrell's debts.<ref>Botting (1999), p. 350.</ref>

In August the Durrells left for Australia.  They arranged a trip to the [[Great Barrier Reef]], with no animal collecting planned.  Although ostensibly the trip was to learn about conservation activities on the reef and in Australia, it was also intended to give Durrell a long recovery period—they travelled by sea in both directions, and were away for nine months with few obligations and no contact with the day-to-day running of the Trust and the zoo.<ref name="auto"/>  Time spent snorkelling on the reef was followed by a trip across northern Australia, and they eventually returned home in early 1970, reaching Jersey in May.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 352–355.</ref>  Durrell's mental health improved over the trip and the following year: he gave up whisky and cigarettes and began practising yoga.<ref>Botting (1999), p. 356.</ref> A [[grand mal]] seizure while in France led to advice from a French doctor to limit his alcohol intake to no more than half a bottle of red wine a day; this was a dramatic reduction, but Durrell followed the advice, lost some weight, and in October Jacquie told Lawrence that "all the tensions and general woes have gone and he is now like his old self".<ref>Botting (1999), p. 361.</ref>