Book info

• Title My Family and Other Animals
• Author Gerald Durrell
• Year 1956
• Genre Memoir

The bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies.

Thoughts

I’ve not really had a huge amount of interest in this in the past, but listened to the audiobook read by Hugh Bonneville and actually it was quite a lot of fun. A very approachable insight into the early (perhaps slightly embellished) childhood of the naturalist and writer when his mother upped sticks and moved to Greece. It made me want to watch some of the TV adaptations of his stories and see how they have been portrayed.

Rating: 3 / 5