Dr Lee M Durrell, MBE, BA, PhD

Honorary Director

American-born Lee Durrell received a PhD in Zoology from Duke University. She married Gerald Durrell in 1979 and spent 15 years with him writing and making tv programmes about natural history and conservation. She became involved with the conservation work of the Trust and was instrumental in re-opening Madagascar to western scientists during the early 1980’s. ‘The State of the Ark’, Lee’s first book, was a comprehensive review of species conservation, published in 1986.  Lee maintains a deep interest in her late husband’s legacy, receiving the MBE for services to conservation in 2011.