Douglas Botting

“Animals, Gerald felt by instinct, were his equals, no matter how small, or ugly, or undistinguished; they were, at a level beyond the merely sentimental, his friends and companions - often his only ones, for he had no great rapport with other children. And the animals, in their turn, sensed this, and responded accordingly, not just when he was a boy on Corfu but throughout all the years of his life.”
― Douglas Botting, Gerald Durrell: The Authorized Biography

“She went to the house and lit a candle. The candle cried: ‘I am being killed.’ The flame: ‘I am killing you.’ The maid answered: ‘It is true, true. For I see your white blood.’ Meanwhile,”
― Douglas Botting, Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography