1. Desmond Morris is known for his 1967 book The Naked Ape, and for his television programmes such as Zoo Time.
19 Facts About Desmond Morris
1. 2.
In 1933, the Morrises moved to Swindon where Desmond developed an interest in natural history and writing.
3.
Desmond Morris was educated at Dauntsey's School, a boarding school in Wiltshire.
4.
In 1946, Desmond Morris joined the British Army for two years of national service, becoming a lecturer in fine arts at the Chiseldon Army College in Wiltshire.
5.
Also in 1950, Desmond Morris wrote and directed two surrealist films, Time Flower and The Butterfly and the Pin.
6.
Desmond Morris stayed at Oxford, researching the reproductive behaviour of birds.
7.
Desmond Morris hosted Granada TV's weekly Zoo Time programme until 1959, scripting and hosting 500 programmes, and 100 episodes of the show Life in the Animal World for BBC2.
8.
Desmond Morris's books include The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal, published in 1967.
9.
The book sold well enough for Desmond Morris to move to Malta in 1968 to write a sequel and other books.
10.
From 1973 to 1981, Desmond Morris was a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.
11.
Desmond Morris wrote and presented the BBC documentary The Human Animal and its accompanying book in 1994.
12.
Desmond Morris is a Fellow honoris causa of the Linnean Society of London.
13.
Parallel to his academic and media career, Desmond Morris continued to create paintings in a Surrealist style.
14.
Desmond Morris's father suffered lung damage in World War I, and died when Desmond Morris was 14.
15.
In July 1952, Desmond Morris married Ramona Baulch; they had one son, Jason.
16.
Desmond Morris lived in the same house in North Oxford as the 19th-century lexicographer James Murray who worked on the Oxford English Dictionary.
17.
Desmond Morris has exhibited at the Taurus Gallery in North Parade, Oxford, close to where he lived.
18.
Desmond Morris is the patron of the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and gave a talk to launch the charity in 1993.
19.
Desmond Morris is criticised for suggesting that gender roles have an evolutionary rather than a purely cultural background.