IN an interview in 2016, Lee McGeorge Durrell expressed concern that school-children had never heard of her late husband’s pioneering conservation work, let alone read his classic My Family and Other Animals. The interview came just as the book, and its Corfu-based sequels Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods, underwent a loose television adaptation, The Durrells. The hope was that it would stimulate interest in Gerald Durrell’s ongoing legacy at the Jersey Zoo, established in 1959 to act as a reserve and to undertake breeding programmes for endangered species.
Durrell had been captivated by Nature from an early age and My Family and Other Animals, first published in 1956, is an expression of the joys of his childhood and his receptiveness to the adventures and wonderment to be found in the great outdoors. The tale is based around a four-year stay on the island of Corfu in the late 1930s, which began when Durrell was 10.
The Durrell herd, led by their widowed mother Louisa, have left the leaden skies of Bournemouth in search of sunshine, ‘like a flock of migrating swallows’. Gerald (Gerry) is the youngest of four siblings, the others include the bookish Larry (Lawrence Durrell, the accomplished novelist, poet and travel writer), already an adult; Margo, with her acne potions and slimming guides; and Leslie, with his revolvers and ‘air of quiet belligerence’. Also along for the fun is Roger, the big black family dog and companion on many of Gerry’s escapades.
Denne historien er fra March 23, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 23, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
