Picture Ref: 72308-10SWINDON...AND PROUD OF IT: WORLD renowned zoologist Desmond Morris describes his home town of Swindon as a magical place.

Desmond who wrote the best selling book The Naked Ape, will always be grateful to the town for inspiring his love of nature.

And he believes the only reason that people criticise it is because it does not have a major cultural building at its centre.

Desmond said: "Swindon is the place where I grew up and to me it will always be a magical place.

"My family owned a lake in the middle of Swindon which is now Queen's Park and nobody was allowed in it except us.

"It was our private domain and the whole place was like a secret garden. The lake was full of frogs, fish and newts and I used to watch them for hours.

"It was what inspired me to become a zoologist."

Another Swindon claim to fame for Desmond is that his great grandfather William Morris founded the Evening Advertiser more than 150 years ago.

He is also grateful to the town for the opportunity he had in 1948 to display his surrealist paintings.

He now has art work displayed in the Tate Modern in London and has exhibited all over the world but he had his first exhibition at Swindon library in Regent Street.

He said: "Swindon has always been a place that is tolerant of new ideas and that was very unusual in those days. At the time people were outraged by surrealist art.

"Picasso's work was regarded as crazy at that time.

"Yet I was allowed to have my surrealist work displayed.

"I remember the letters column of the Adver was filled with outraged letters at the time."

Desmond, who now lives near Oxford, believes that what Swindon needs to silence its critics is a major cultural building in the centre, such as a museum or art gallery.

He said: "I love Swindon it's a wonderful place.

"I don't know why Swindon always get criticised but I think that part of the reason is that it does not have any major cultural buildings.

"Unlike some northern cities where the industrialists build big buildings as monuments to their achievements that didn't happen in Swindon.

"We need something major like a museum, a university or an art gallery.

"Then I think people would stop making these criticisms.

"There used to be a beautiful old theatre here. The Empire which was knocked down. That was a real tragedy."

Diana Milne