I must admit my favourite parts in the book were the interactions within the family. He is there with his widowed mother, his brothers Laurence(Larry) and Leslie and his sister Margot. The conflicts that arose thanks to Gerry’s finds were laugh out loud funny. All those family moments were just brilliant. Several books have alluded to the title of Durrell's book, including Josephine Feeney's 1995 novel My Family and Other Natural Disasters, Simon Doonan's 2005 memoir Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints, Kirin Narayan's 2007 memoir My Family and Other Saints, and Clare Balding's 2014 autobiography, My Animals and Other Family.

My Family and Other Animals (1956) is an autobiographical book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells in an exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised way 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, which also includes Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969) and The Garden of the Gods (1978). Clare Balding is a well known sports presenter with a special interest in horse racing. I have no interest in sports and an out and out dislike of racing......but I adored this book, and could not put it down. Claire Balding is known for sports broadcasting – initially that was horse racing but now she commentates on all sorts of sports, especially the Olympics & Paralympics. I loved 'My family and Other Animals'(1956) by Gerald Durrell from start to finish, thoroughly and in detail. That's why I will tell you about it from A to Z. Gerry doesn’t attend any schools on Corfu, he has lessons with tutors. I’m sure you will be astonished by the gallery of his eccentric teachers.

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Durrell's overuse of similes and adjectives might cause some readers to grind their teeth to powder, but I personally adore this overkill of descriptive imagery. Wildlife Preservation Canada established the Gerald Durrell Society in 2006 as recognition for individuals who have made legacy gifts. Of more lasting emotional importance for Gerald though is Theodore Stephanides (Chris Langham), a biologist and witty raconteur who is young Gerald's link not only to the marine and insect life that Corfu has to offer, but also its rich cultural beauty too. One thing I was not expecting but received was an education in tortoise mating. Amazing to think of this young boy taking it all in.

Set in the 1930s, before the hedonism of mass tourism had descended upon the Greek islands, Gerald Durrell puts the 'Cor!' into Corfu. For Mother especially, the experience is emotionally moving as she watches her youngest child Gerald grow up more and more each day.Gerry's teacher. One of the most comical characters in the book. Known for his chivalry and wrestling skills. Which turned out to be quite virtual. I should probably preface this review in saying that I have absolutely no interest in sport and most certainly not for horse racing, the decision to read this book was made purely out of fascination and intrigue yet it becomes the first biography I have chosen to review here, to receive five stars. Gerald Durrell is pure pleasure to read - the ideal medicine if you are stressed out or down in the dumps. Like P. G. Wodehouse, he is guaranteed to lift up your spirits.

Patient. Practical. Sane which seems to be quite an exception in this family. Adorable. You might try not to love her but you won't stand a ghost of a chance. Her hobbies are cooking and gardening.Tuttavia, lo stesso autore afferma che, inizialmente, il libro doveva essere esclusivamente dedicato alla descrizione degli animali dell'isola, quindi era plausibile che una parte del libro fosse dedicata ad essa. George discovered that by seasoning a series of unpalatable facts with a sprig of zoology and a sprinkle of completely irrelevant detail, he could get me interested. Thus I became conversant with some historical data which, to the best of my knowledge, have never been recorded before. Breathlessly, history lesson by history lesson, I followed Hannibal’s progress over the Alps. His reason for attempting such a feat, and what he intended to do on the other side, were details that scarcely worried me. No, my interest in what I considered to be a very badly planned expedition lay in the fact that I knew the name of each and every elephant . I also knew that Hannibal had appointed a special man not only to feed and look after the elephants, but to give them hot-water bottles when the weather got cold . This interesting fact seems to have escaped most serious historians...The lectures were attended by Gerry, his dog Roger, Achilles the tortoise and Quasimodo the pigeon. The four musketeers doted on the juicy big grapes of Corfu. Achilles loved the wild strawberries the best though. I had spent most of my childhood thinking I was a dog, and suspect I had aged in dog years. By the time I was ten I had discovered the pain of unbearable loss. I had felt joy and jealousy. Most important of all, I knew how to love and how to let myself be loved. All these things I learned through animals. Horses and dogs were my family and my friends. This is their story as much as it is mine.” This book is slightly different from his usual tales about zoos and animal collecting, though - humans actually take up a large part of it. As Durrell says in the introduction:

Theodore, an "expert" on most sciences, but more importantly, Gerry's mentor on zoology and botany; My Family and Other Animals is the semi-autobiographical account of prepubescent Gerald's expat life on the Greek island of Corfu with his upper crust, eccentric, English family.Should've Sent Him Away. Gerald Durrell's brother, Lawrence Durrell, a well-known author in his own right, has been quoted as saying that his brother's books are proof that children should be sent away to boarding school and not allowed to sit in on adult conversations and goings-on. Numerous individual animals of rare species born in captivity have been named "Gerry" or "Gerald" as homage to Durrell, among them the first Aldabra giant tortoise born in captivity.