Gerald Durrell's Corfu

Rodger Whitlock totototo@telus.net
Sat, 05 Nov 2005 06:48:34 PST
On  4 Nov 05 at 10:22, Hans und Babs Joschko wrote:

> I dont know the book of Gerald Durell...

On 4 Nov 2005 at 17:56, Julia Feise wrote:

> For those who haven't read Durrell's books on Corfu, they
> are a pleasure waiting to be discovered.


Gerald Durrell was the younger brother of Lawrence Durrell, the 
author of the Alexandria Quartet novels.

The Durrell family (mother, three sons, one daughter -- father 
was dead) moved to Corfu around 1934 when Gerald was abt. 10 
y.o. and lived there until the outbreak of World War II.

In later life, Gerald Durrell had a private zoo on Jersey 
devoted to the breeding of rare and endangered animals. Most of 
his books are about his animal-hunting expeditions in obscure 
corners of the world, and are interesting if you like 
travelogue writing.

He also wrote about his boyhood life on Corfu, however. Three 
books, "My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts, and 
Relatives", and "The Garden of the Gods." There's also an 
isolated account of the Corfu period in "Filets of Plaice."

Gerald Durrell had been interested in animals from his earliest 
years and his books on Corfu prominently feature the animal 
life there, plus the local Greek population, with only minor 
sideglances at the flora. 

However, they are wonderful books that will bring a smile to 
anyone's lips, even us bulb enthusiasts. I find his animal 
hunting books to be in the category read-once-and-get-rid-of, 
but the Corfu accounts have a permanent place on my 
bookshelves.

Back to our regularly scheduled discussion of bulbs...

-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island


More information about the pbs mailing list