There’s no doubt that Gerald Durrell is a legend: I’m pretty sure the title ‘My Family and Other Animals’ sounds familiar even for those who don’t know his other works in depths. The famous writer and zoologist has left an exemplary legacy with his love of nature and animal protection activities (which are described in his books with unique and addictive humor) serving as a compass for future generations.
Gerald Durrell was born in India in 1925. He was 3 years old when the family moved back to England after the death of the engineer father. They spent a few years in Corfu in the thirties, that’s where little Gerry’s commitment to nature and animals deepened significantly. In the forties, he worked at a pet shop, at a farm and at Whipsnade Zoo located near London (his book called Beasts in My Belfry is about this period) and he set his goals of collecting animals and establishing his own zoo especially for endangered animal species. He wrote seven acclaimed novels between 1953 and 1958 including the most successful one called My Family and Other Animals. Although his love and ability to write was obvious, he only considered it as a tool to earn enough money to accomplish his dream: in 1959, he established Jersey Zoo and this dream finally came true.
My Family and Other Animals was inspired by his own childhood memories and it belongs to the Corfu trilogy (other parts are Birds, Beasts, and Relatives & The Garden of the Gods). It is about the Durrell family’s chaotically idyllic years spent on the Greek island from the point of view of Gerry, the youngest brother who is crazy for animals. As the title suggests, the rest of the family appears in the novel as well: the absent-minded mother who spends half of her life in the kitchen, the artistic soul and writer Larry, the gun addicted Leslie and the silly Margo who always chases love. I started to read this book as a primary school student and after the first extensive nature description, I immediately put it back to shelf – up high because I didn’t even wanna look at it in the foreseeable future. It came to my mind again after more than a decade and it’s absolutely inexplicable how could someone change so much but this time, I was in awe: I was fascinated by the details of the fauna in Corfu and I guess it was the first time I laughed out loud while reading a book thanks to the awkwardness of the family described in a hilarious manner.
It’s one of my favourite books despite the fact that according some sources, the adventures were heavily idealized by the writer and for example the real-life mother wasn’t as pure as in the novel. Allegedly, she was unable to fully process the death of her husband and thus she was drinking heavily – it throws new light upon her whimsical behaviour in the novel. Later on, all of the three brothers suffered from alcohol problems: Gerald had a liver disease and died after a transplant surgery.
Regardless of the fiction/non-fiction ratio, Family and Other Animals is a masterpiece and I regret that I didn’t dig deep into the adventures of little Gerry in my teenage years. It could have influenced my career choices as well like in the case of Lee McGeorge who started to deal with nature protection because of this book amongst others. And later on, she became the wife of her icon.
Durrell was a guest lecturer at the university where Lee studied in 1977 and the common interest got them together almost instantly (despite the age gap: Durrell was 52, the woman was 24 years younger). Durrell asked her to visit him at his zoo on the island of Jersey (located between France and England) to create a sound-recording laboratory (as Lee was studying animal communication). He divorced his first wife in 1979 and Lee then became his partner in both work and private life.
They worked together to save endangered species such as the Mauritius kestrel and they were the first Westerners who had the opportunity to film the Russian wildlife in the eighties. Their love story isn’t a typical one as their commitment to animals defined all their shared memories: for instance, Durrell gave his wife four tarantulas for their 10th wedding anniversary.
Gerald and Lee Durrell, with a barn owl in 1987
Allegedly, the writer sensed that he would die first before his lover: he used to tell her that he needed to marry a ‘good widow’. Apparently, he made a good decision: after his death in 1995, Lee continued to cultivate their common heritage and is still a committed leader of the zoo and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. The global ambassador of the zoo and the trust is a real superhero: the actor Henry Cavill, the other one is Milo Parker who plays the young Gerry in the TV series called The Durrells based on the Corfu-trilogy.
The zoo offers unmatched accommodation possibilities: while glamping we can also admire the gorillas and orangutans appearing among the nearby trees. Do you fancy visiting the zoo? From Hungary, you can reach Jersey with a connecting flight from London, it costs approximately 60K HUF according to a random Skyscanner calculation. Entry to the zoo is £16.
Gina
Source of the picture: Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock
