Art, by mentioning his brother, you reminded me:-

Gerald Durrell - stories that can make you laugh until you drop the book!

On other books, I've got an old sci-fi paperback by a bloke called Laurence M Janifer - never seen anything else by him, which is a shame bcos it's good. Think he's maybe one of the "Golden Age" authors who are now out of print.

Another name that's not come up yet - William Horwood. His early Duncton Wood books were pretty good (later ones sucked), but Skallagrigg is outstanding.

Tom Sharpe as well - Vintage Stuff is his best, but there's any number of others to choose from. Not the kind of thing you'd give your granny to read, but bloody funny all the same!

Graham.