The follow-up to My Family and Other Animals and the inspiration for The Durrells in Corfu A naturalist’s memoir of his family’s time on a Greek island. In the years before World War II, Gerald Durrell’s family left the gloomy shores of England for the sun-drenched island of Corfu. Against this picturesque backdrop, Durrell fondly recalls his family’s disorderly household and outrageous antics, … household and outrageous antics, including their interactions with locals of both human and animal varieties.
After a boyhood spent studying zoology and acquiring the island’s exotic insects, reptiles, birds, mammals, and sea creatures as pets, Durrell’s budding naturalism would later bloom into a passion for conservation that would last a lifetime.
Filled with clever observations, amusing anecdotes, and childlike wonder, Birds, Beasts and Relatives is half nature guide, half coming-of-age tale, and all charmingly funny memoir.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.
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I wondered if the second book in “The Corfu Trilogy” would measure up to the first. However, I was not disappointed.
“Birds, Beasts and Relatives” begins back in England as Gerald is being dissuaded from writing a second memoir. His gift for language shines through once again as he recounts the comments of Margo, Leslie, Larry and his mother, who despairs at thoughts of her relationship with Captain Creech being published for “the world” to read.
There are many more wonderful stories of his growing collection of toads, owls… all with enchanting names and characters.
However, it is the antics of his family that continued to amuse me, with tales of Margo’s growing girth and acne, Mrs Haddock the medium and her unusual style of speech, meetings with the mysterious countess and the drunken antics of Larry’s acquaintances…
Awesome book. I you love animals you’ll love this book. Great for 10 years plus. I read it too my aging parents. We also lived watching The Durrells in Corfu. Outstanding!!
I first read this book at age 10. In fact, my entire family read it and laughed so much. What a crazy family in such an innocent (relatively) time. Its a memoir about an English family who move to the Greek island of Corfu between the 1st & 2nd WWs. The family consists of a widowed mother with four kids who range from late teens to 9. One is a budding writer (the late Lawrence Durrell), one loves hunting and guns and little else, the daughter is a typical 15yro and the youngest son is obsessed with animals, bugs, fish-if it has a pulse and isn’t human- he’s in (the late Gerald Durrell, famous naturalist, zoo owner, author). I highly recommend this book with one caveat, the author is typical Englishman of his time in regards to his outlook on women and the existing culture/people of any land not British.
Young Gerald just loves the life on Corfu, investigating all manner of creatures. His family consists of truly very diverse characters. At times the oldest and also Margo, the girl in the family, just invite people to come to their place. Unfortunately, these strangers often show up unannounced and make for very awkward but funny moments. Corfu, sunny and surrounded by warm waters, makes for a great contrast to the rainy dreary weather often occurring in England. Anyway, I just highly recommend his books. Moreover, it was broadcast as a series on NPT.
Everyone should have a childhood as idyllic as Gerry Durrell’s. Living in a virtual paradise with practically no adult supervision, his own boat and his own donkey, free reign to collect wildlife and stash them in the house, and a private tutor when he got any formal education at all. We’d been watching the PBS series, the Durrells in Corfu, so I thought I’d read the real memoir. The series got the personalities of the siblings right. If anything, they were more eccentric (and Larry even more insufferable) in real life than portrayed on screen. The biggest difference is that the family is poor in the TV show, but had oodles of money in real life. I started reading the second book in the trilogy but it was highly redundant. Maybe I’ll try reading something by Larry Durrell, who really was a successful author
It is definitely informative. It drags sometimes but the pre-WWII time frame is a time of interest to me plus all the info on the different animals.
I loved the book as much as the PBS series – plenty of characters and laugh out loud moments.
Perfect reading to take a break from our world today
I wanted to read this because I have been watching the Durrell’s of Corfu on PBS. This is so entertaining! The characters are wonderful! Some parts will literally make you laugh out loud! This is an interesting, unique family and a must read for fans of the PBS series.