- The Fantastic Flying Journey
"The Fantastic Flying Journey" (ISBN 0755104366) is a children's book written by
Gerald Durrell . It is a story about three children and their great-uncle Lancelot travelling around the world in ahot air balloon . It has been published byConran Octopus , in1987 . It is illustrated byGraham Percy . In1989 , Durrell wrote asequel for this book calledThe Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure .Plot
One day, a hot air balloon lands in the garden of the Dollybuts. A fat old man owns it: Great-Uncle Lancelot. He tells Mrs Dollybut and her three children that he's after his brother, Perceval, who is lost in the jungles of
Africa , looking forgorillas . Perceval is a scientist, who invented a magic dust, which makes you able to communicate with animals.Lancelot takes the three children, Emma, Ivan and Conrad with him to track Uncle Perceval. On their way, they several animals, such as a
swallow , acamel and afennec fox , who tell them many interesting facts about their lives. In the jungle, the gorillas tell them that Perceval left forSouth Africa , to meet someelephants .Lancelot and the three children follow Perceval to South Africa, and then to
Australia ,theNorth Pole ,Canada ,North America ,Brazil andPatagonia . On their way, they meet acrocodile , arhinoceros , somekoala s, aplatypus , ablue whale , somekiller whales ,polar bear s,musk ox en,beaver s, buffalos,monarch butterflies , aboa constrictor , somehowler monkey s,penguin s andelephant seal s. Everywhere, they learn something about the animals, their habitat, behaviour and dangers threatening them.In the end, the elephant seal tells them that Uncle Perceval has returned to Britain. So they follow him there, and find Perceval in the Dollybut's house. The chase lasted a whole year, but the children all agree it was not a waste of time after all.
Trivia
* Durrell based the character of Great-Uncle Lancelot on himself. His brother Perceval was loosely based on
Lawrence Durrell .
* The personality of the animals in the book usually reflects Durrell's opinion about those species. For examples, the gorillas have a lovable personality, because Durrell was on good terms with his gorillas at theJersey Zoo . On the contrary, the camel is rude and nasty, because when Durrell worked atWhipsnade Zoo , he was bitten by a camel.
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