My Family and Other Animals (1956) is an autobiographical work by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed mother on the Greek island of Corfu between 1935 and 1939. It describes the life of the Durrell family in a humorous manner, and explores the fauna of the island. It is the first and most well-known of Durrell's 'Corfu trilogy,' together with Birds, Beasts, and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods (1978).
Durrell had already written several successful books about his trips collecting animals in the wild for zoos when he published My Family and Other Animals in 1956. Its comic exaggeration of the foibles of his family - especially his eldest brother Lawrence Durrell, who became a celebrated novelist and poet- and his heartfelt appreciation of the natural world made it very successful. Durrell was able to found the Jersey Zoological Park (now known as the Durrell Wildlife Park) in the Channel Islands. He also became known as a novel-writer and television personality. His books helped stimulate the development of tourism in Corfu.
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Summary
The book is an autobiographical account of five years in the childhood of naturalist Gerald Durrell, age 10 at the start of the saga, of his family, pets and life during a sojourn on the island of Corfu. The book is divided into three sections, marking the three villas where the family lived on the island. Gerald is the youngest in a family consisting of their widowed mother, the eldest son Larry, the gun-mad Leslie, and diet-obsessed sister Margo together with Roger the dog. They are fiercely protected by their taxi-driver friend Spiro (Spiros "Americano" Halikiopoulos) and mentored by the polymath Dr. Theodore Stephanides who provides Gerald with his education in natural history. Other human characters, chiefly eccentric, include Gerald's private tutors, the artistic and literary visitors Larry invites to stay, and the local people who befriend the family.
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Background
The book was written in 1955 in Bournemouth, where Durrell was recuperating from a severe attack of jaundice. Whereas Durrell often claimed to find writing a chore, this book was different: his first wife Jacquie recalled "Never have I known Gerry work as he did then; it seemed to pour out of him". Durrell maintained "he had started off like a good cook with three ingredients which, delicious alone, were even better in combination: namely, the spellbinding landscape of a Greek island before tourism succeeded in spoiling it for tourists; his discovery of and friendship with the wild denizens, both animal and Greek, of that island; and the eccentric conduct of all members of his family." The book was an instant success.
Although My Family is presented as autobiographical, if not completely objective, the events described are not always true - in particular Larry lived in another part of Corfu with his first wife Nancy Durrell, whom Gerald does not mention at all. The chronology of events as they occur in the book is also inaccurate, and the reason for the Durrells' departure from Corfu (World War II) is not given; instead, it is implied that the family returned to England for the sake of Gerald's education.
However, the book does succeed in preserving the impressions of ten- to fifteen-year-old Gerald extremely vividly and with a great deal of light-hearted humour. Despite the omissions and inaccuracies, Lawrence Durrell commented "This is a very wicked, very funny, and I'm afraid rather truthful book - the best argument I know for keeping thirteen-year-olds at boarding-schools and not letting them hang about the house listening in to conversations of their elders and betters".
The book was first published by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd in 1956 and in paperback by Penguin Books in 1959 and has remained in print ever since.
Adaptations
Television and film
1987
My Family and Other Animals was made into a ten-part BBC television series in 1987 written by Charles Wood and directed by Peter Barber-Fleming. It starred Hannah Gordon as Louisa Durrell and Brian Blessed as Spiro Amerikanos, with Darren Redmayne playing the young Gerry. Nigel Marven of the Natural History Unit, Bristol was responsible for the animals side of the production; Denis McKeown, then PhD student in Psychology University of Sussex did the training of the famous pigeon Quasimodo in the series.
2005
In 2005, it was adapted by the BBC as a 90-minute film, My Family and Other Animals, starring Eugene Simon as the young Gerry, Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Durrell and Omid Djalili as Spiro. This adaptation was written by Simon Nye.
2016
On 3 April 2016 ITV began running the six-part series The Durrells, also adapted by Simon Nye. Loosely based on the book, it starred Keeley Hawes as Louisa Durrell and Milo Parker as Gerald Durrell. It was set in 1935.
2017
On 23 April 2017 ITV ran the second series of The Durrells, set in 1936.
2018
ITV is due to run the third series of The Durrells, set in 1937.
Theatre
In 2006, the Jersey Arts Centre's Theatre in Education company produced the first stage version, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the book's publication in 1956. Adapted and directed by Daniel Austin, the play premiered on 22 February 2007 at Rouge Bouillon School in St Helier.
Title
Several works have referenced the title of Durrell's book, including Simon Doonan's memoir Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints, Kirin Narayan's memoir My Family and Other Saints, and Josephine Feeney's novel My Family and Other Natural Disasters. In Nanny Ogg's Cookbook by Terry Pratchett, there is reference to a fictional book titled My Family and Other Werewolves. Clare Balding's 2014 autobiography is titled My Animals and Other Family.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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