My Family and Other Animals Synopsis
My Family and Other Animals is the story of the adventurous time Durrell and his family spent on the island of Corfu during his childhood. Worn down by the miserable English weather, Gerry's family takes the unusual step - for a 1930s British family - of moving somewhere hotter. Treated to the sunshine of Greece with its array of flora and fauna, young Gerald is in a budding naturalist's utopia, with the added bonus of being able to observe the unusual creatures known as his relatives. His placid mother, gun-obsessed brother Leslie, angst and acne-plagued sister Margo, and eldest brother the irascible author Larry put on a dazzling display of human quirk, and combine with strays such as Spiro the local taxi-driver to brilliant comic effect. Animal and human life combine in this beautiful, timelessly entertaining memoir.
Hugh Bonneville is an acclaimed British stage, television, film and radio actor.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781906147693 |
| Publication date: |
26th August 2010 |
| Author: |
Gerald Durrell |
| Publisher: |
Canongate an imprint of Canongate Books |
| Format: |
CD-Audio |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Gerald Durrell Press Reviews
'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities.' Sunday Telegraph
'A bewitching book.' Sunday Times
About Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1925. He returned to England in 1928 before settling on the island of Corfu with his family. In 1945 he joined the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper, and in 1947 he led his first animal-collecting expedition to the Cameroons. He later undertook numerous further expeditions, visiting Paraguay, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Mauritius, Assam and Madagascar. His first television programme, Two in the Bush, which documented his travels to New Zealand, Australia and Malaya was made in 1962; he went on to make seventy programmes about his trips around the world. In 1959 he founded the Jersey Zoological Park, and in 1964 he founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. He was awarded the OBE in 1982. Encouraged to write about his life's work by his brother, Durrell published his first book, The Overloaded Ark, in 1953. It soon became a bestseller and he went on to write thirty-six other titles, including My Family and Other Animals, The Bafut Beagles, Encounters with Animals, The Drunken Forest, A Zoo in My Luggage, The Whispering Land, Menagerie Manor, The Amateur Naturalist and The Aye-Aye and I. Gerald Durrell died in 1995.
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