The story of a six months’ collecting trip made by Gerald Durrell and John Yealland to the great rain forests of the Cameroons in West Africa to bring back alive some of the fascinating animals, birds, and reptiles of the region and to see one of the few parts of Africa that remained as it had been when the continent was first discovered. . . a book of immense charm. The author handles English prose with the same firmness and discretion that he used to dispense towards the pangolins and lemuroids that fell to his snares and huntsmen in the Cameroons. How seldom it is that books of this kind are written by those who can write! . . . a genuinely amusing writer.” — Time and Tide “. . . I hail a happy book out of Africa . . . and one amusing in its own right . . . I can think of no more wholesomely escapist experience than travelling for an all-too-brief spell in Mr Durrell’s overloaded ark. No wonder it is a Book Society choice.” — Daily Telegraph “. . . He has a gift both of enjoyment and of description, and writes vividly and well.” — The Times