My first books were nature books graduating from Ladybird to Observer's pocket series to the mighty Reader's Digest Book of British Birds. But it was Kirkby Library that first gave me the bug to read about people interacting with animals in a factual or fictional context. My Family and Other Animals (including the TV series based on it) gives a flavour of adventure in hot climates with sticky people and beasts. Overloaded Ark, about collecting in West Africa, was the one it started it for Gerald and started it for me. My grandparents took me to his Jersey Zoo as part of a Channel Islands holiday as a child. Writing is how Gerald financed his pioneering conservation work. Never let anyone tell you a zoo is cruel. Individual cages can be (particularly for bigger animals) but it's down to poor design. We all know this feeling now when you can be stuck in a high rise flat with limited open space (or lucky enough to have access to a park or countryside).
