David Shimwell is a botanist and a close family friend of the Durrells. He graduated from Durham University with degrees in botany and vegetation ecology and has had a lifelong career lecturing in botany, biogeography and environmental conservation at the universities of Hull and Manchester.
Lee Durrell is Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and has a PhD in zoology from Duke University specialising on animal vocalisations in Madagascar.
She married Gerald in 1979 and worked with him on books and television series about nature and conservation over the next decade. In 2011 she was awarded the MBE for services to conservation.