London: Macmillan Collector's Library, 2016 (first published 1956)
ISBN 9781909621985
What an absolutely wonderful book! I was drawn to reading it having seen the television series The Durrells, and I'm so glad that I was. I have known of Gerald Durrell since my early childhood owing to his work with endangered animals, having seen him on television, but until now have not read any of his 37 published books. My Family and Other Animals is the first of book of what has become known as the "Corfu Trilogy" of books Durrell wrote about his family's time spent on the Greek island of Corfu.
And what a wonderful time they had - Louisa, Gerald's mother was the kind-hearted head of the family (a widow), Larry, the eldest, a budding novelist, Leslie mad for hunting and guns, Margo the fashionista, and Gerry forever on the hunt for wildlife to observe and collect.
My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful collection of stories, some too good to be true (but they apparently were so) about the Durrell's life on Corfu, their family life and arguments, the friends they made and their eccentricities, and the natural life of the island. Gerry is a wonderful story-teller, and each chapter is a delight of humour and wonderful descriptions of the seasons and what they bring.
From the chaos caused by Gerry's magpies at a big family party, to their friend Spiro stealing goldfish from the King of Greece's palace, to Larry almost drowning in mud in an attempt to prove that Leslie's achievement of getting a "left-and-a-right" (killing two birds with two shots from a double-barreled shotgun) was not a big deal, to Margo nearly dying from actually kissing the feet of St. Spiridon, each chapter takes the reader into a different, simpler, more beautiful world, which, given what is going on today in the midst of COVID-19, is a gift.
I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell
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