My Family and Other Animals

Shirley J.                  Adult Non-Fiction         English family's adventures living in Corfu, Greece

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell     288 pages

These are the adventures the PBS series, "The Durrells in Corfu," was based on.   If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it and this book.   The Durrells, (mother and 3 sons and a daughter) pulled up stakes in their homeland of England and moved bed, board and baggage to Corfu, Greece.   The adventures they have there acclimating to the new culture, climate and surroundings is fodder for hilarity.   Plus author, Gerald Durrell, the youngest at 11 years of age when they arrived, finds his interests lie in the flora, fauna and animals of the island.  Gerald grows up to be a botanist and zoologist, and herein are the beginnings of that love for creatures great and small even when venomous and bad tempered which could also be said of his oldest brother, Larry.  The people of Corfu are warm, wonderful and welcoming and with that ocean view, it might be worth putting up with the heat and the mosquitoes.  So funny, I hated for the book to end.   Now I have put Gerry's other books on reserve.  You will really take this family into your heart and not want to let go.   I recommend this book to youngsters on up, it is a delightful fun read.