My Animals and Other Family

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Una narrazione talmente romanzesca che, spesso, leggendo si fatica a ricordarsi la vera natura del testo.

Fortunately not present at all! The hospitality of Corfiots was really moving. Kind and generous, they offered delicious food to Gerry and made his family feel at home. The de-rodentification of Rat Island in St. Lucia by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to create a sanctuary for the Saint Lucia whiptail lizard on the lines of Praslin Island has caused an official change in name for Rat Island. It is in the process of being renamed Durrell Island. Intrepid biologist, 12-year-old Gerald (Eugene Simon), acne-infested Margot (Tamzin Merchant), gun-loving Leslie (Russell Tovey) and overbearing intellectual Larry (Matthew Goode) make up the bohemian Durrel family.

In 2005, it was adapted by the BBC as a 90-minute film, My Family and Other Animals, starring Eugene Simon as the young Gerry, Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Durrell and Omid Djalili as Spiro. This adaptation was written by Simon Nye. [5] 2016–2019 [ edit ] This book achieves the best things about autobiography by not pushing you through every last 'comic incident' of the writer's life, but by guiding you through what was important and notable to them as they grew up. Theodore, an "expert" on most sciences, but more importantly, Gerry's mentor on zoology and botany; My Family and Other Animals (1956) is an autobiographical work by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells 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. 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.

I laughed at so many of the personal anecdotes, savored the beautiful descriptions of the island, and was entertained by his interactions with many of the island locals. The encounter with the Rose-beetle Man (what a fantastic figure this man must have been!), a meeting with a convict let out for a temporary jaunt, and the appointments with various tutors (including one with quite the impressive bird collection) all pointed to the fact that Gerry lived quite an extraordinary young life. I expected to be amused by and pleased with this story, but what I found to be a pleasant surprise was that Gerald Durrell could really write! I didn’t just highlight the funny stuff (although there are loads of those bits marked up too), but passages like this one left me gaga over his choice of words: 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:This is ruined by two things: 1. The music. An oppressive ever present whistling, a diabolical melody is whistled at the beginning and throughout anytime there is no talking. It dictates the mood of any scene, it pervades strangles and suffocates like a weed. Scoring a huge plus is the fact that in a world of conservatively written memoirs, Balding's is overtly honest and open. We learn about her difficult boarding school education, teetering on the edge of expulsion and an obscenely strict and isolated upbringing. Whilst being shunned for being a girl and generally being left to fend for oneself from such a young age would have been a traumatic time for most children, it wasn't for Balding. Instead she discovered a prowess for horse riding, and discovered her inherent competitive streak which is a delight to read of.