A book review: My Family and Other Animals (Gerald Durrell)

This is long overdue. Oh, well. Here goes.

This book is purely wonderful. I'm a lover of animals and any tale involving animals usually do capture my interest and my good opinion. However, this book is more than that. It tells the story of Gerald Durrell during his childhood stay on the Greek island of Corfu and the many animals he met, discovered and kept as pets. Woven into the story is the various antics and eccentricities of his family that really made the book such fun to read. Indeed, the book is full of wit, satire and sarcasm that livens up the story in so many ways, making it all really laughable.

I got the book at the weekend flea market at Amcorp and it was really such a steal. I forgot how much I paid for it but it was only a few bucks. Gerald Durrell wrote various other books and I'm currently searching for them. I'm hooked.

Yeah, they even made a television series based on the book. I can't seem to find a download so I guess I'll have to purchase it.

Finally, I'll leave you with an excerpt that really made me laugh and I feel that was a wonderful ending to the book. He managed to capture the sorrow of leaving Corfu but yet manages to make light of the event by injecting a little humour into the scene, making it a perfect closing to a great tale.

As the ship drew across the sea and Corfu sank shimmering into the pearly heat haze on the horizon a black depression settled on us, which lasted all the way back to England. The grimy train scuttled its way up from Brindisi toward Switzerland, and we sat in silence, not wishing to talk. Above our heads, on the rack, the finches sang in their cages, the Magenpies chuckled and hammered with their beaks, and Alecko gave a mournful yarp at intervals. Around our feet, the dogs lay snoring. At the Swiss frontier our passports were examined by the disgracefully efficient officials. He handed them back to Mother, together with a small slip of paper, bowed unsmilingly, and left us to our gloom. Some moments later Mother glanced at the form the official had filled in, and as she read it, she stiffened.

'Just look what he's put,' she exclaimed indignantly, 'impertinent man'

Larry stared at the little form and snorted.

'Well, that's the penalty you pay for leaving Corfu,' he pointed out.

On the little card, in the column headed Description of Passengers had been written, in neat capitals: One traveling Circus and Staff.

'What a thing to write,' said Mother, still simmering, 'really some people are peculiar'.

The train rattled towards London.