Editors Reads Verdict
One of the most joyful books in English — a portrait of childhood paradise that is also, without announcing itself, among the finest nature writing of the 20th century.
What We Loved
- The prose is consistently delightful — precise about nature, hilarious about family, warm about everything
- The portrait of Corfu — its light, its wildlife, its people — is specific enough to read as genuine travel writing
- The family characters (brother Lawrence, sister Margo, mother) are unforgettable comic creations
- The natural history is accurate and engaging — Durrell was a genuine scientist despite his comic voice
Minor Drawbacks
- The two sequels (Birds, Beasts and Relatives; The Garden of the Gods) are less polished than the original
- The 1930s colonial-era perspective on the Greek islanders occasionally shows its age
- Some readers want more drama — the book is episodic and deliberately unhurried
Key Takeaways
- → A child's relationship with the natural world — before knowledge becomes formal — is a form of pure attention
- → The Corfu of the 1930s was a different country: Durrell's account is an inadvertent historical document of a vanished way of life
- → Nature writing and comedy are not opposites — Durrell's method demonstrates that precision and delight reinforce each other
| Author | Gerald Durrell |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Pages | 288 |
| Published | January 1, 1956 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir, Nature Writing, Humour |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Readers who love nature writing, memoir, and comic books in equal measure; anyone interested in Greece or Corfu; and anyone who remembers childhood as a time of obsessive, unsupervised curiosity about the natural world. |
In 1935, the Durrell family — eccentric mother, four children including a ten-year-old Gerald and his older novelist brother Lawrence — abandoned England for the Greek island of Corfu, where they lived for five years in a succession of villas with a changing cast of tutors, servants, and neighbours. For Gerald, the youngest, it was five years of almost entirely unsupervised immersion in the wildlife of one of the most species-rich corners of the Mediterranean.
My Family and Other Animals (1956) is his account of this childhood paradise, written twenty years later with the double vision of someone who remembers both the child’s-eye wonder and the naturalist’s subsequent knowledge. The wildlife chapters are organised around the creatures Gerald collected, studied, and occasionally drove his family to distraction with: scorpions in matchboxes, octopuses in the bath, a Scops owl named Ulysses, a collection of snakes that escaped with some regularity. The natural history is accurate — Durrell went on to found the Jersey Zoo and was a serious conservation biologist — but it is presented with a comic lightness that never sacrifices precision.
Corfu in the 1930s is rendered with the particularity that only a child’s complete attention could achieve: the quality of the light, the smell of the olive groves, the specific call of particular birds, the textures of particular beaches. The island itself becomes one of the book’s characters, as vivid as brother Lawrence (pompous, literary, somewhat alarmed by the fauna), sister Margo (boy-obsessed, frequently sunburned), and the mother who presides over the chaos with an unruffled willingness to accommodate whatever creature or lunatic her youngest has brought home.
The BBC television adaptations — The Durrells (2016–2019) — introduced a new generation to the story; the book, typically, is considerably funnier and stranger than any adaptation could manage.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "My Family and Other Animals" about?
Young Gerald Durrell's account of five years living on Corfu with his eccentric family in the 1930s — a childhood paradise of wildlife, sunshine, and complete freedom to roam.
Who should read "My Family and Other Animals"?
Readers who love nature writing, memoir, and comic books in equal measure; anyone interested in Greece or Corfu; and anyone who remembers childhood as a time of obsessive, unsupervised curiosity about the natural world.
What are the key takeaways from "My Family and Other Animals"?
A child's relationship with the natural world — before knowledge becomes formal — is a form of pure attention The Corfu of the 1930s was a different country: Durrell's account is an inadvertent historical document of a vanished way of life Nature writing and comedy are not opposites — Durrell's method demonstrates that precision and delight reinforce each other
Is "My Family and Other Animals" worth reading?
One of the most joyful books in English — a portrait of childhood paradise that is also, without announcing itself, among the finest nature writing of the 20th century.
Ready to Read My Family and Other Animals?
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