I don’t remember having a lot of heroes as a kid. Most of those I did have were fictional characters from books – characters from the bildungsroman fantasy I enjoy so much. But I did have Gerald Durrell. All through my childhood, what I remember wanting most to be when I grew up was Gerald Durrell. Upon reaching the age where I realised that I couldn’t grow up into another person, I wanted to be a naturalist. The idea of collecting animals and birds for zoos, of helping in the conservation effort, of being part of that revolution thrilled me. And later, as I realised that that might be unattainable, I still wanted to be like Gerald Durrell, as a raconteur, a story-teller, a writer.

I am not going to write you even a potted history of Gerald Durrell here now this morning. I am not here for history lessons. If what I say about him interests you, appeals to you, I encourage you whole-heartedly to look him up. Don’t just look him up on Wikipedia – discover the man as I did, all those years ago, through his own words, in his books. My Family and Other Animals was always one of my absolute favourites, and I can’t but recommend it.

But now, having said all that, back to the meat of today’s sermon. He shaped a lot of me today. Someone asked me yesterday what I admired most about him. My answer was that he went out there into the world, knowing what he wanted, and he did everything in his power to make it happen. And he got there. His dreams came true.

He had a dream that everyone said was impossible – to found a zoo, built on the principles first and foremost of conservation. And he went out into the world, he caught animals in order to start breeding programmes in zoos, in order to fund this dream. He kept the beginnings of his zoo in a suburban house on the South Coast while he looked for a place to found his zoo. And as he was coming to the end of his tether, the place fell into his lap, and Jersey Zoo was born.

I don’t want to be an author. I’ve never wanted what I write to be pored over, studied, and pecked to bits for literature exams. I want it to be story-telling. I want it to be fun, a little bit crazy, and heartfelt. Every so often, as my passions start to wane, and I start to believe that what I want, what I really, really want is impossible – by which I mean really, really impossible, and not just that shade of very unlikely that everyone considers impossible – Gerald Durrell comes along, and points out to me that the impossible can really be done.

And he has the advantage over the fictional characters I always place so much of my faith in, because he existed. There’s no magic, no narrative happy endings. Just good hard work, impossible dreams, story-telling at its best, and a whole lot of chance. Its hard not to love all that. I have been visiting and revisiting Gerald Durrell’s life and books now for more than twenty-five years. He is still a great source of inspiration.

For those interested, there is a book called The Durrells of Corfu, by Michael Haag, which I would recommend in a heartbeat. Anything by Gerald Durrell is a fantastic read. Gerald’s Older brother Lawrence Durrell was also a writer, but I have to admit never having gotten into his books.