The Durrells of Corfu by Michael Haag: book review

The Durrels of Corfu (2017) is set in Corfu, a Greek island and is the biography of the Durrell family, a family of writers and environmentalists.

Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) was the author of My Family and Other Animals (1956), as well as other books, and a naturalist, zookeeper and television presenter. This is the story of the Durrell family – Louisa and her four children, Lawrence, Leslie, Margaret, and Gerald who lived in Corfu from 1935 after the death of Louisa’s husband from a brain haemorrhage in India.

Gerald (Gerry) was born in India in 1925, so he was 10 years old when the family moved to Corfu and his older brother Lawrence (the novelist) was 23 years old. Larry arrived first, with his wife Nancy, with the rest of the family following a few months later, living in the ‘’magical homes’’ of Strawberry-Pink Villa, Daffodil-Yellow Villa, and Snow-White Villa (Villa Number Three or the White House).

Gerald later wrote, ‘’My family has always shown symptoms of flamboyant idiocy … so Corfu was the ideal greenhouse to bring this to full fruition. The whole atmosphere of the island and the people themselves encouraged the eccentric in one to emerge and spread its wings.’’

Gerald ‘’botanised’’ early, after seeing a friend’s microscope slides. Gerald wrote, ‘’Leaf to bud, caterpillar to butterfly, tadpole to toad or frog, I was surrounded by miracles.’’ From the 1824 Georgian-style home to the Chessboard Fields, Gerald loved the landscape of Corfu – ‘’they did have a bath, but Gerald always had creatures in the bath.’’

In June 1939, the family moved to England and Athens during the war, and in 1945 Gerald had his first job as Student Keeper at Whipsnade Zoo owned by the Zoological Society of London. He became an independent zoologist at the age of 21, travelling the world on wildlife expeditions.

In 1959 Gerald established his own zoo on the island of Jersey, which is now called the Durrell Wildlife Park. He was the first person to consider the benefits to the animals – protection, species preservation, replenishment and breeding. He returned to Corfu in 1967 but much had changed, and so had he.

The book is very much about the Durrell family, even though I focus here on Gerald. The family wrote and travelled and supported each other’s dreams and aspirations, settling in different parts of the world, including Leslie in Kenya.

In a time capsule, buried in 1988 on the grounds of his zoo, seven years before his death, Gerald Durrell’s papers include the following quote :

We hope that there will be fireflies and glow-worms at night to guide you and butterflies in hedges and forests to greet you.
We hope that your dawns will have an orchestra of bird song and that the sound of their wings and the opalescence of their colouring will dazzle you.
We hope that there will still be the extraordinary varieties of creatures sharing the land of the planet with you to enchant you and enrich your lives as they have done for us.
We hope that you will be grateful for having been born into such a magical world.

This is a befitting quote for 4 October 2017, World Animal Day.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).