Book

Durrell, Gerald, 1925-1995.

My family and other animals.

New York, Viking Press, 1957 [©1956]

273 pages 22 cm

The story of a five-year sojourn on the Greek island of Corfu by Gerald, his family, and the various animals he studied.

The first book in Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy: a bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu, which was the inspiration for the 2016 Masterpiece PBS series The Durrells in Corfu.

When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell's family's experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies into their home.

Durrell, Gerald, 1925-1995. Corfu trilogy ; 1.

Durrell, Gerald, 1925-1995 -- Childhood and youth.

Naturalists -- Childhood and youth.

Conservationists -- Childhood and youth.

Natural history -- Greece -- Corfu Island.

Corfu Island (Greece) -- Description and travel.

Autobiographies.

First published in Great Britain by Rupert Hart-Davis Limited in 1956. First published in the United States by Viking Press, Inc. in 1957. Published in a Viking Compass edition 1963. Published by Penguin Books 1977, 200, 2004, [and 2016]. Cover photograph © Sid Gentle Films Ltd.

Gerald Malcolm Durrell OBE was an Indian-born British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British India, and moved to England when his father died in 1928. Gerald Durrell spent much of his childhood in Corfu, a magical time described in his much-loved book 'My Family and Other Animals'. It was these formative years that truly ignited his fascination with animals and love of the natural world. The boy naturalist started working with zoos and thrilled readers with his true-life adventures in many popular books. During his travels he became increasingly concerned about the problems facing wildlife everywhere, and he began to pioneer the concept of zoo-led conservation. Through his writing, Gerald generated sufficient income to create his own zoo, with a clear mission of saving species from extinction. This four word mission statement still remains today. He opened Jersey Zoo in 1959 and in 1963 established a charitable trust to oversee the zoo and carry out the conservation work worldwide. Gerald Durrell passed away in 1995, and a few years later the trust was named Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to honor his significant and enduring contribution to conservation. <https://www.durrell.org>

The speech for the defence. -- The migration -- The unsuspected isle -- The strawberry-pink villa -- The rose-beetle man -- A bushel of learning -- A treasure of spiders -- The sweet spring -- Conversation : [Larry invites all his friends to stay in our already cramped villa]. -- The daffodil-yellow villa -- The tortoise hills -- The world in a wall -- The pageant of fireflies -- The enchanted archipelago -- The woodcock winter -- Conversation : [the spring Great-Aunt Hermione invites herself to stay]. -- The snow-white villa -- The talking flowers -- The cyclamen woods -- The lake of lilies -- The chessboard fields -- An entertainment with animals -- The return.

57006436

0670499110

9780670499113

* 0140013997

0142004413

9780142004418

014028902X

9780140289022

547811

1

0

1

592112

1

1

591.092 Durrell