There's a fabulous feature on The Guardian website about the Last Chance To See TV series. Stephen Fry begins the feature, which then links to some excerpts from the new book that accompanies the series (by Mark Carwardine, with Stephen Fry). There's also a very nice picture gallery.

I had been sharing a place in Dalston at this time with a group of friends from university, but we were now at the stage where it was possible to consider splitting up and buying our own flats and houses. I wanted to find a place in Islington, but also felt that I needed time to look around and wait for the perfect property. Perhaps I should rent first? I offloaded my tedious residential worries on Douglas one afternoon as we sat in his study staring at a Mac and wondering, for the thousandth time, if we could stop it going "boing" and closing down whenever we tried to do something unusual with it.

"Why don't you stay here for a year?" he suggested. "You can house-sit for me. I've decided to go round the world for 12 months seeking out rare animals."

"You've de-whatted to go round the what, whatting out whats?"