London: Collins, 1969
The second book in Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy (I have reviewed the first book here), Birds, Beasts and Relatives is not really a sequel to My Family and Other Animals, more an extension. Durrell has mined his and his family's memories to add to the trove of stories about their life on Corfu. We are introduced to some new characters along the way, as well as re-meeting Theodore and Spiro, the Durrell's two closest friends on Corfu.
As always, it is Gerald's description of the natural life of Corfu that is most appealing - his writing takes the reader to the olive groves and beaches of this wonderful island, and we share his fascination with everything that walks, crawls or flies past him. And it is his love of animals that find him in some very strange situations: at the birth of a son to a local peasant woman, watching it all (along with all her relatives), to dining with a Countess who lived alone with her strange manservant. These stories are interspersed with hilarious tales of the people Larry brought home to tea - Sven the Swedish accordianist, Captain Creech, who is as bad as he sounds, and Max and Donald, a sort of Laurel and Hardy double-act.
The beauty of books such as these well-written and evocative memoirs is that they take the reader out of themselves on a journey into someone else's life and times, and help us to forget whatever troubles we might be suffering. If you want to be taken away from where you are now, I can highly recommend Birds, Beasts and Relatives.
Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell
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