'Three singles to Adventure, please,' I said, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. 'Yes, sir,' said the clerk. 'First or second class?'

In 1950, Gerald Durrell travelled to British Guiana (now called Guyana) to bring back fauna native to that corner of South America.

He takes a riverboat up the Essequibo through lush tropical forests and treks across a landscape teeming with life and a riot of colours: from the crimson-breasted military starlings to the copper-toned howler monkeys. He gets into a sticky situation with an angry two-toed sloth and learns how (or how not) to lasso a galloping anteater. There is one thing to be said for collecting animals: it can never be described as dull.