Married to Adventure, by Jule Mannix

7/100 Chances are that this book will be very difficult to source in a library and may generally be difficult to get anywhere, because it was a "find" in my favourite bookshop in Much Wenlock. I love to browse the books there, mainly the old and out-of-print ones, because while there are modern books and contemporary authors too, I can get those anywhere. It's not often that I manage to come away with any purchases, because I don't always strike the happy median where I can afford to buy the books I want to read! This one, though, fit the bill nicely (or maybe it was the bill that fit me nicely - heh!)

Anyway, this book is called "Married to Adventure", and it was written by Jule Mannix. She and her husband Dan must have been contemporaries of Gerald Durrell, and did more or less what he did - which is travel to exotic places to photograph exotic wild animals in their natural habitat (and keep some as pets in a good way ). While Durrell's aim was mainly animal conservation, this couple took photos and made films of their adventures with wild animals, mainly for the lecture circuit. Jule Mannix's book is set in the mid-1930s or thereabouts, and she writes with a genuine enthusiasm for the adventures and the animals she and her husband came across - the bonus is that she's also funny. Not as funny as ol' Gerald, and she doesn't have a madcap family or friends like he did... but there was enough humour to keep me entertained and smiling. I would definitely recommend sourcing this book if possible, as it's a genuinely lovely - and lively - read. If not, you know where you can get this copy, right?