Editing Gerald Durrell (section)

== War years and Whipsnade ==
Louisa established the family in a Kensington flat, and began looking for a house for them.  While they were in London, Gerald took his first job, as an assistant at a pet shop near the flat, and impressed the owner with his knowledge of animals.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 74–75.</ref>  Louisa moved the family back to Bournemouth by early 1940, and there she made one more attempt to get Gerald an education.  A visit to a local [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]] was not a success, so another tutor was hired: Harold Binns, a veteran of World War I.  Binns taught Gerald to appreciate poetry and gave him a love of the English language and good writing, and also showed him how to make use of his local public library.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 76–78.</ref>  Gerald spent the next two years exploring the countryside around Bournemouth and reading books from the library, supplementing these with purchases when he could afford to do so.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 80, 83.</ref>

Durrell's call-up for the war came in late 1942, but he was exempted from military duty on medical grounds.<ref name=":3">Botting (1999), pp. 84–87.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Durrell later recalled the doctor who examined him saying "I've never seen sinuses like yours{{nbsp}}... If anyone wanted to clean that up they'd have to excavate your skull with a pickaxe".<ref name=":3" />|group = note}}  His exemption letter told him that his options were to work in a munitions factory or find work on a farm; he chose the latter, but instead worked at a riding school at Longham, near Bournemouth, having persuaded the owner to tell the authorities he was doing farmwork if asked.  He spent the rest of the war mucking out and grooming the horses, giving riding lessons, and occasionally having brief affairs with women he was teaching to ride.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 87–88.</ref>

After the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Durrell decided that if he were ever to achieve his dream of owning a zoo, he had to gain more experience working with animals.  He applied to the Zoological Society of London, and was invited to the zoo to meet the superintendent, [[Geoffrey Vevers]].  At the interview, Durrell "prattled on interminably about animals, animal collecting and my own zoo", as Durrell later put it, and Vevers wrote to him a few weeks later offering him a position as a student keeper at [[Whipsnade Zoo]].  He began work there on 30 July.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 88–89.</ref>  He was transferred periodically between areas of the zoo, and spent much of his time cleaning the animals' cages, but occasionally had more interesting tasks, such as helping to hand-rear four newborn [[Père David's deer]].  The work could be dangerous: he was asked at one point to separate an [[African buffalo]] calf from its mother, and on another occasion to cage an aggressive [[brindled gnu]], and broke some bones in his hand during one of these tasks.<ref name=":14">Botting (1999), pp. 92–95, 98–99.</ref><ref name=":15">Durrell (1976), pp. 106–108, 138–140.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Durrell's biographer, Botting, says Durrell broke his hand while separating the African buffalo calf from its mother, but in Durrell's own autobiographical account it happens while caging the gnu.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":15" />|group = note}}  Durrell continued his reading while at Whipsnade, now concentrating on learning more about zoos.  The extinctions of animals such as the [[dodo]], the [[passenger pigeon]] and the [[quagga]] appalled him, and he realised that most zoos considered their role to be as exhibitors of animals, and did not think of themselves as scientific institutions which might help address the problems of endangered species.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 92–93.</ref>  He was also disappointed by the weak scientific knowledge of Whipsnade's staff.  Some of the keepers knew less than they claimed about their animals, and were often unwilling to pass on what they did know.  An exception was another newly hired keeper, Ken Smith, who was responsible for the Père David's deer.  Smith and Durrell established a friendship that lasted long after Durrell left Whipsnade.<ref name=":4">Botting (1999), p. 99.</ref>  Durrell had good friends among the female keepers, and some romances, including one woman whom he took to Bournemouth to meet his family a couple of times.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 96–98.</ref>

On Durrell's twenty-first birthday, in January 1946, he inherited £3,000 (equivalent to £{{formatprice|{{inflation|UK|3000|1946|r=-3}}}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}}) that had been set aside for him in his father's will.<ref name=":4" />  His long-term goal was to collect animals and start a zoo, and he wrote letters to animal collectors, offering to pay his own expenses if he could join their expeditions.  All turned him down because of his lack of experience.  Eventually he decided to use his inheritance to fund an expedition of his own, which would give him the experience he needed to be hired by the established collectors.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 99–100.</ref>  He left Whipsnade in  May and returned to Bournemouth to plan his first expedition.<ref>Botting (1999), pp. 101–102.</ref>