The Durrells of Corfu

by Michael Haag

Simon Nye's TV series, The Durrells, is based loosely on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy and in particular his much-loved bestseller, My Family and Other Animals. These books in turn are based somewhat loosely on actual events. The real-life Durrells went to Corfu at the urging of Lawrence Durrell, who was already living on the island with his wife, Nancy Myers. Their intent was to keep the family together as his mother, Louisa, was drinking heavily and recovering from a breakdown; 'We can be proud of the way we brought her up,' Larry said, only half-jokingly, of the family's subsequent Corfu sojourn. Michael Haag's book covers the background to the Durrell family's years in Corfu, including their time in India, where all the children were born, and where their father, a brilliant civil engineer, had died. It recalls the real life characters the Durrells encountered on Corfu, notably the biologist and poet Theodore Stephanides, and the taxi driver, Spiros Halikiopoulos. And Haag tells the story of how the Durrells left Corfu, including Margo's return intent on joining the Greek resistance, and Leslie's romance in England with the family's Corfite maid and friend, Maria Kondos. Further chapters cover what happened to the family in later life; here, Lawrence and Gerald Durrell's biographies are well known, but little has previously been written of Margo, Leslie and Louisa. Haag has fascinating stories to tell of them all.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Travel, Greece, History, Audiobook, Biography Memoir

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Michael Haag, who lived in London, was a writer, historian and biographer. He wrote widely on the Egyptian, Classical and Medieval worlds; and on the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Gerald Durrell's books on animals and zoos, I loved even more Lawrence Durrell's books, especially The Alexandria Quartet, not so much Margo's deservedly almost-unknown Whatever Happened to Margo? and Leslie didn't write, so I thought I would enjoy this book about the Durrells. But I'm not.

The author says,

The Durrells themselves were masters of fabulation. All of the children were great storytellers and embroiderers of tales. They complained about Gerry's My Family and Other Animals - Margo in particular - even as they happily appropriated each other's stories and, where necessary, invented new ones.

Margo summed it up when she said, 'I never know what's fact and what's fiction in my family.' And that's how I felt about the book, I don't know either especially with the conversations and conjectures. Quite a lot of it I am familiar with as I read them in Gerald Durrell's entertaining books years ago.

What is interesting are the racist ideas (not of the author or Durrells, but the times) in the book. The authors, Gerald and Lawrence Durrell are very much thought of as English authors. But they weren't. They were all born in India, as were their parents, as were their maternal grandparents. But being white, they were 'Anglo-Indians' or more usually, English. Wikipedia describes them as 'an English family'. Being British citizens by virtue of their passports, doesn't make them English, and doesn't make them less than second and third generation Indians.

I think it is more likely that I am the wrong reader for the book, rather than the book not being a good one, the direct quote (see Notes) where Larry said, "working in real estate", an American term, he would have said 'working in an estate agent's' did kind of spoil it for me and I began to find it boring, which eventually became terminal. DNF.
__________

Notes on reading Sometimes you read something so jarring, that it casts doubt on the veracity of the author - can his words be trusted to be the true story or is he just adapting it (as he accuses the Durrells of doing) to suit his audience? This is what Haig wrote, 'real estate'.

In a somewhat over-flavoured account of his bohemian days in London, Larry described getting together with Nancy: My so called up-bringing was quite an uproar. I have always broked stable when I was unhappy ... I hymned and whored in London - playing jazz in a nightclub, composing jazz songs, working in real estate.

Larry wouldn't have said 'real estate', that is a term used in the US, never in the UK, not then, not now. It makes me doubt the veracity of the book. Direct quotes should never be altered by an author or an editor.

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why spoil a good story with facts, right?

The Durrells were masters of fabulation. All the children were great storytellers and embroiderers of tales. ~ Michael Haag.

This book does just that. Like an old neighbor rushing to the fence to share some juicy gossip about the most popular family in the neighborhood. However, it also fills in the gaps for those readers who wanted to know more about this remarkable family.

Compared to Ernest Hemingway, Frank McCourt, and so many others, Gerald and Lawrence Durrell had an 'easier' escape from the hardships from their past. It was still tough and challenging, but they made it in the end. They were made of more than just the adversities they had to face.

Mother (Louisa Durrell) had the toughest life of them all. Raising four children after the sudden death of her husband and later a looming world war (WWII), left some scars. Gerald Durrell in the first book of his Corfu trilogy My family And Other Animals commented that the children raised their mother well. But that was a sadness behind those words, which is explained in this book of Michael Haag.

Larry(Lawrence), the eldest, who took responsibility for Gerald's unconventional education, reflected years later: As much as Louisa allowed her children to grow freely, there was an unspoken understanding among them of their mother's fragility; for all their anarchy they had to look after their mother, otherwise they would have no family. Larry made a joke of it but the point was serious: 'We can be proud of the way we brought her up; she is a credit to us.

In his unpublished memoirs, Gerry reflected on the eccentrics of his family: My family has always shown symptoms of flamboyant idiocy as far back as I can remember, so Corfu was the ideal greenhouse to bring this to full fruition. The whole atmosphere of the island and the people themselves encouraged the eccentrics to emerge in one and spread its wings.

Michael Haag: (But) the brightness and colour and the freedom they discovered in Corfu lifted their spirits. The island possessed the softness of an Italian landscape, the warmth and fragrance of the Mediterranean, the idiosyncrasies of Greece--an intensity of sensations they had not known since leaving India. For the Durrells, after their first years in England struggling with their family tragedy, it was a rebirth. Protective of their family unity, the children never pushed their disorder too far, allowing their mother to preside over a happy anarchy. For each of the Durrells Corfu was a healing.

I enjoyed this book. The author chronologically filled in the dates, people and places of everything we need to know about this family that captured our imaginations and hearts. The reader gained insight into their personalities, social standing, and the historical period that was covered. The author added even more laughter, more compassion, more idiosyncrasies to enjoy.

All the included photos allowed the family members to speak for themselves. Letters, diaries and other documentation was provided by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey.

Other characters included: Dr. Theodore Stephanides (Larry's friend and Gerald's mentor);

Spiro Americanos Halikiopoulos, taxi driver and all-round fixer;

the American writer Henry Miller (he recorded his Corfu experiences in the best book he ever wrote The Colossus of Maroussi);

the Rose-Beetle Man (what a character!);

Kosti, the fisherman (My name is Kosti. Kosti Panopoulos. I killed my wife);

and lesser shadow figures, such as Vivian Iris Raymond, another British resident of Corfu.

Her observations depicted the stiff-uppity-lip snobbishness of the Brits on the island towards the Durrells (and the Greeks - good gracious!).

We once visited Mrs Durrell and the rest of the family in their home near Corfu Town. We were served a meal outside. Gerald, Lawrence’s youngest brother, was a few years older than me. He seemed to be a very big boy. He ignored me … The Durrells all talked at once, shouting across the table and calling from the kitchen door, behaviour I associated with my Greek cousins but not with English people. At one point a ruckus broke out when someone emptied a kitchen bowl of water into the garden. It had contained Gerald’s tadpoles. Many years later in his book, My Family and Other Animals, Gerald described this scene in fabulously exaggerated terms; the tadpoles had become snakes, flung far and wide amid shrieks of horror. As an adult I enjoyed the book for its entertaining stories, but was offended by the mocking tone towards the Greeks. The Greeks are exuberant, excitable people, full of energy and abundant self confidence. But they are not clowns. Indeed, it had seemed to me that the Durrells had been the clowns.

We visited them quite a few times … The established British community was not comfortable with the Durrells’ bohemian lifestyle. The Durrells were not members of the professional or officer classes, and were certainly not gentry. They were quite unlike any other British people on the islands at that time. They associated with the peasants and villagers in a way that offended both those below and above their station. This is not because the establishment looked down on the villagers. We were genuinely fond of our servants … The villagers had a uniquely Greek sense of pride and bearing that permitted no acknowledgement of inferiority. However, they knew their place. There were many subtle rules that defined just what interactions were appropriate across the social strata. The Durrells did not understand these conventions. They did not fit.

I had heard Mummy's friends talk about degenerates, a term I had not understood, but decided that they must have been referring to people like the Durrells.

I started out with Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy, with just a relaxing read in mind. I ended up reading everything I could find on this family. It's like my addiction to Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series in the village of Three Pines. I just cannot get enough. Perhaps it is the warmheartedness and 'menschness' of all the characters involved, and the historical period they were born into.

Most of all, I think, it is their sense of humor (their masterful 'fabulations') with which they covered up the hardships, which also brought healing to themselves. They kept me glued to their stories. They battled on so many fronts and won on their own terms.

This is a wonderful book.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anyone who blithely accepted My Family and Other Animals as true memoir and fact (as I did - but then I was only about 11-12 when I read it), this comes as a wake-up call. While it still tries to capture all the whimsical charm of the Durrell legend (such as when young Gerry is befriended by a woman who, intermittently, has gentlemen callers who take her into the bedroom and lock the door in order to ‘discuss business’...), it also cannot escape darker tones: the colonial inheritances of the family who came from generations of administrators in the British Raj; the death of their father; their mother’s alcoholism and breakdown – none of these makes it into Gerald’s sunny memoirs. It’s also interesting to see that Lawrence – Larry – was already married and moved to Corfu before enticing the family over.

I listened to the audiobook and found the narrator acceptable but some of the voices he does were a bit jarring. Nevertheless, an interesting book - if rather superficial – that tries to both tell the truth behind the famous image of the bohemian Durrells while maintaining that ‘English eccentrics’ aura untouched.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Durrell's are one of those well know families that have permeated the British literary culture. There is Lawrence Durrell whose most famous work is The Alexandria Quartet. Then there is Gerald Durrell, founder of the world-renowned Jersey Zoo and author of many books, including My Family and Other Animals, about growing up with animals in the homes in Corfu. The TV series that is proving so popular is loosed based on My Family and Other Animals and the others in the Corfu Trilogy and the books themselves are loosely based on the real-life events that took place when they were living there.

In this book Michael Haag has gone behind the literary curtains to see what really happened, The children were all born in India, to Lawrence and Louise Durrell. Lawrence Durrell was a civil engineer responsible for building some of the railways of India. He died of a brain haemorrhage in 1928, and Louisa and the Leslie, Margo and Gerald moved back to London. They stayed there for a short while before relocating to Bournemouth. By 1935 they had been persuaded to move to Corfu by the eldest Lawrence, who was living there with his wife. It was here that the interest that Gerald had in all thing animals became an obsession. It was aided by his friendship with Theodore Stephanides, a Greek doctor, scientist, poet, philosopher, who nurtured his passion for animals. At the outbreak of war in 1939, they all moved back to the UK.

It is an enjoyable book to read about their slightly chaotic family life in Corfu, full of personal anecdotes and details gleaned from personal documents to fill in the gaps of the stories from the books. He tells the stories of Louisa, Leslie and Margo, the family members often in the shadow of there more famous family members. This unconventional upbringing gave us two world-famous authors, though I did have a wry smile that Gerald Durrell was a best selling author before his more literary brother, Lawrence. Even though my wife met Gerald Durrell once, and we have a lot of his books around the house, I have never read any of them! Something that I am intending on rectifying very soon.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the beginning there was Paradise . . .



In 1935 Lousia Durrell and her four children – Lawrence (Larry), Leslie, Margaret (Margo) and Gerald (Gerry) – went to live in Corfu. The years that followed were made famous in Gerald Durrell’s much-loved My Family and Other Animals and in Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods, the other volumes of his Corfu Trilogy. Gerry’s older brother Lawrence, who achieved world renown with The Alexandria Quartet, also wrote his own beautifully observed book about Corfu, Prospero’s Cell .
‘We had arrived at a place that was to be of enormous influence over all of us,’ Gerry wrote of the family’s reaction to Corfu. ‘It was like being allowed back into Paradise.’


See the whole Durrell family with all their lives revealed. Geralds' books may hint at strange situations and here we see the true reasons.
Michael Haag has researched many of the Durrells' archives and questioned many of their friends for true reactions to the lives of this delightful family.


Tabitha - such a friendly lady, who would only stop playing with young Gerry when a gentleman caller arrived to discuss business . . .

One morning as he was trailing after birds he became aware of someone walking slowly by, a pretty young woman with long glossy hair, who stopped and said, ‘Hello. What are you trying to do?’ Gerry explained about the salt on their tails and how difficult it was. ‘It looks exhausting,’ she said with twinkling eyes. ‘Why don’t you come to my place and have something to drink to refresh you, and you can meet my goldfish and my cat'
‘I loved the days I spent with Tabitha,’ recalled Gerry. ‘She was not only very sweet and kind but very funny. She taught me all sorts of songs and she taught me not only the Charleston but how to do the waltz and at times we went round and round so fast that eventually we would collapse on the sofa, she with peals of laughter and me giggling like an hysteric. These were wonderful days, only marred by the fact that occasionally a gentleman would arrive to talk business with Tabitha and so she would leave me in charge of the gramophone while she took the gentleman into the bedroom and locked the door so that they could discuss their important business.’

Bureaucrats and form filling are still the same today. On preparing to travel to Corfu with Roger, Gerry's dog, officialdom produced problems - where was the paperwork?

‘Then somebody said Roger would need a certificate before we could take him into Greece. This turned out to be a most complex piece of bureaucratic idiocy and eventually we got an enormous paper, done in copperplate handwriting, and ending in a huge red seal. This was Roger’s passport and, needless to say, nobody ever wanted to consult it.'

They would meet Spiro, who was to become their driver, bodyguard, and general factotum. The family's first day out involved finding a local taxi driver. The drivers frightened them with their demands that only their taxi would do.

‘Hoy!’ roared the voice. ‘Yous wants someones who can talks your own language. Thems bastards, if yous will excuses the words, would swindles their own mothers. Excuses me a minute and I’ll fix thems.’ Nearly knocking the drivers off their feet with ferocious imprecations in Greek, he turned to the Durrells and asked them, ‘Wheres you wants to go?’

This was the famous Spiro.



The family had found their first home in Corfu but also they had found Spiro, or he had found them. He knew everyone, he knew how things were done, and if anyone caused trouble, ‘I fixes thems.’
From the day of their arrival at the Strawberry-Pink Villa, Spiro took complete control over the family’s affairs. He berated the bank manager for the late arrival of Mother’s funds from England; he wrested the family’s luggage from the overzealous customs officials; he took them shopping in town and bargained fiercely over every drachma on their behalf; and he kept them regularly provided with fresh food – ‘We ate what Spiro brought us from the market,’ Margo said.
The Durrells trusted Spiro completely and he remained devoted to them throughout their years in Corfu. Or, as Gerry put it, in My Family and Other Animals : ‘Donts you worries yourselfs about anythings, Mrs Durrells, leaves everythings to me.’



Lost in Translation

In the kitchen, Margo remembered, Mother introduced local ingredients to her curries and ‘adapted to the Greek style’. But what Louisa never really adapted to was the Greek language, with unfortunate consequences, as on the occasion she had spent all morning making a special soup. ‘The dialogue at lunch’, wrote Gerry in his memoirs, ‘went something like this’:
Larry: I thought we were going to have that delicious soup for lunch.
Mother (flustered): We were, dear, but unfortunately it got … er … thrown out.
Larry: Thrown out?
Mother: Yes dear. Katarina threw it out of the window.
Larry (staring at her in disbelief): Why? Is the girl mad?
Mother: No, no. It’s not really her fault. I gave her the soup and told her to bring it in here. I said ‘Exo, to soupa’.
Larry (in exasperation): Really, Mother, you’re impossible. Don’t you know that ‘Exo’ means ‘Throw it out’?
Mother (with dignity): I know it now, dear.

Without labour saving devices Gerry's mother needed servants.
‘In a moment of misguided enthusiasm,’ said Gerry, Mother engaged Lugaretzia to work for them in the villa. She was ‘a thin, lugubrious individual’ and sensitive; the slightest criticism of her work and she broke into tears, and so the family gave up criticising her at all. Her chief contribution to life at the villa was her hypochondria: the only thing that brought a glint to Lugaretzia’s eye, a smile to her lips, was when the family would discuss her numerous ailments.

WAR

Margo shared in the great sense of excitement everywhere at the approach of war. In the early morning of 1 September Germany invaded Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. Greece was neutral and Italy was still neutral, but there was the widespread feeling that a general European conflagration was about to begin.
‘War was declared while I was at Perama’, Margo recalled. ‘I got a little note from Spiro, and it said, “Don’t tell a soul! War has been declared!”’




‘Gerry Durrell was, to use the modern idiom, Magic,’ said his friend and fellow naturalist Sir David Attenborough. ‘You imbibe it in his books, you feel it in his Zoo, you see it in the eyes of his trainees, and you hear it in even the most restrained tones of zoo directors.’

Enjoy!

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at the Durrells.

The amazing thing was discovering that Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals" wasn't actually THAT much of an exaggeration!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have watched the PBS series, The Durrells in Corfu” you will especially love this book. It follows the family from India to England to Corfu and back toEngland. The writer describes each family member in detail and manages to capture the magic of their years spent in Corfu. After reading it I want to follow their footsteps but unfortunately WWII and subsequently post war tourism has erased much of the original flavor of living in Greece, a place occupied for years by the Venetians that is heavily influenced by British expats. I truly loved it but I am a fan of the show, the family and of Greece.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true history of the various members of the Durrell family, as most famously, albeit not completely correctly, told in the Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell. Light and enjoyable reading if you are interested in this sort of thing (which I am). Amazingly, the book comes with an extensive index.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book found very interesting as it was a mixture of family interviews and research gives us an idea of the Durrell family from the origins in India to England & Jersey via Corfu and through some of the books published by Gerald and Lawerence. Where myth and fact maybe different in context of the stories we read about the family in Corfu. The book itself was delightful with family photographs included too and a relatively light read too.

[K (pronounced k)]

Disappointing, despite the collection of nude sunbathing pictures of early 20th c. Literary Men. (Although tbh I was not panting to see Henry Miller in, as it were, the flesh.)

I'm a little surprised this made it out the door of a publishing house, actually. I'm very, very familiar with the work of Gerald Durrell; my favourite book when I was six was My Family and Other Animals, and I've re-read his works a great many times. A considerable part of Haag's biography seems to consist of... let's say very lightly rewritten excerpts from G. Durrell's work, all perfectly recognisable and juxtaposed with large chunks of direct quotation (as though to add insult to injury). I never liked those of Lawrence's books I read, and so don't have any of them deeply engraved in my memory, but I somehow suspect that most of the portions of this I didn't immediately identify were similarly rephrased pieces of his work, or of the unpublished family papers Haag had access to.

Mildly interesting in terms of the family history, and the eventual fates of the lot of them, but I think I'd still advise the curious to read Gerald's books instead. Despite their uncomfortable baggage of colonialism, racism and sexism, they do at least retain the extremely witty flair which Haag strips off in this short book.

[Olga Kowalska (WielkiBuk) · Rating 3 out of 5]

„Durrellowie z Korfu” to fascynująca podróż do świata, który przeminął i zniknął niemal całkowicie wraz z końcem II Wojny Światowej. Świata beztroski, nieznośnej lekkości bytu, rodzinnej sielanki i wyspy, która dzisiaj niczym już nie przypomina rajskiego zakątka Durrellów. Rodzinna opowieść pełna dziwacznych przygód i swobody, na którą niewielu dzisiaj może sobie już pozwolić. Tej rodziny nie sposób nie polubić, nie sposób też jej delikatnie nie zazdrościć, kiedy czytamy o dzieciństwie jak z krainy snów, o ich spontaniczności, którą dają jedynie naprawdę duże pieniądze oraz idące za nimi poczucie bezpieczeństwa. Kto o Durrellach słyszał, ten podczas lektury będzie czuł się jak u starych przyjaciół, to pewne. W lekkim piórze Michaela Haaga czuć sympatię do Durrellów, sentyment do tej ekscentrycznej gromady i fascynację ich jakże odmiennym życiem, a to sprawia, że nawet jeśli nigdy o nich nie słyszeliśmy, to po lekturze wyjdziemy równie zafascynowani i zadowoleni. Biografia jakże odmienna, a jakże ciekawa.

[Rex Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's no way to know if the correlation is one-to-one but we can see in their work that a lot of great writers were obsessed with sex. Lawrence Durrell was certainly one. In this personal look at his family's near idyllic experience on Corfu (1935-1939) the author shows "Larry's" whole personality, including that fixation. He comes off as more personable than you would guess from his work but every bit as complex. Not to give the wrong impression, this book is at least as much about his family, especially his brother Gerald a born naturalist who founded the zoo on Jersey and funded it with his own writing. Even if you've never read anything by either of them, you could probably enjoy this short volume because it nicely brings out the peculiarities of a family group which Gerald hinted at in the title of his most well-known work, "My Family and Other Animals."

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was totally hooked on the two seasons Masterpiece did on PBS, "The Durrells in Corfu". The series is loosely based on the memoirs of the Durrell's youngest son, Gerald, who became a naturalist. This book provides interesting background info on the family. I found it helpful to know that they had lived in India, all of the four children having been born there. That explained why a move to England, after the death of the father (who had worked as a civil engineer for the British empire in India), was so unhappy. The weather seemed vey dreary and Louisa, the family's mother, was in shock at being widowed rather suddenly. The oldest son, Lawrence (on his way to becoming an accomplished novelist), suggested a move to sunny Corfu. It was also the 1930s, so money was tight in England and Greece seemed a more affordable option. Gerald wrote several books about their adventures in Corfu, but there were some minor departures from reality. This book gives the scoop on the true story and provides lots of interesting photos of the family. Now I plan to read Gerald's books, beginning with "My Family and Other Animals". In this snowy January, it will be nice to spend some time in Corfu with the quirky Durrell family.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

When we moved to Malta from Canada in 1992, my parents took one box of books with them - I gave my sizable collection to a school library. One day in March I was complaining that I wanted something to read, so my dad went to the box as we didn't have shelves yet and pulled out My Family and Other Animals. I devoured it in a couple of weeks and spent the rest of 1992 hunting Gerald Durrell's other books but to this day My Family.. remains one of Durrell's best books.

For those who don't know the story, it is a semi autobiographical account of the Durrell's move from England to Corfu and their adventures. As it is told from Gerald's point of view, animals play a huge part in the narrative.

In 1999 Douglas Botting wrote a biography on Durrell exposing the truth behind the voyage but that bio focuses mostly on Gerald's attempts at establishing a zoo, rather than The Durrell's in Corfu. Haag takes the opposite route and his bio is entirely about the Durrell's four year sojourn in Corfu. There's quite a bit of new information as Haag had access to Gerald's unpublished autobiography and, for the first time we readers learn why The Durrell's had to leave the island.

This is a solid read. If you are a fan you'll learn quite a few new thing but really this is a pleasant read and nothing else. At least it uncovers the truth behind the Corfu trilogy and points out Durrell's embellishments. It's breezy and can be read in a couple of hours. Saying that do read My Family and other Animals (and the vulgar Garden of the Gods) first as that will provide the necessary background reading for this book

[Aleks Piotrowska · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had two attempts with this book and didn’t manage to go beyond page 30. Maybe it will be a treat to someone avidly interested in tiny details of family’s life but for me it was a very unpleasant read through random collection of kid’s memories.
What I aimed for was a decent book about family’s history, what I got was a chaos in which author with no literary competence rushes through scraps of Durrells’ lives, not giving enough time to any of the interesting facts yet putting unexplainable attention to redundant information found in one or another memoir (the colour of sari of an indian woman that Gerry passed on his way to watch two snails copulating in some ditch) while over-representing the quotes from said memoirs.

As an example, below is what you can find in a span of 3 consecutive pages from the book:
Gerry’s first word -> family’s moving to Lahore -> colours of India, scents of leopards and tigers -> quote from Gerry about copulating snails -> again scents and colours of India -> father’s death -> Margo’s memories and quotes -> looks and character of Lawrence sr -> kid’s life during their father’s illness (more quotes) -> governess and kid’s attendance to catholic church -> Margaret’s lasts memory of her father -> Luisa’s thoughts on suicide and converting to catholicism -> decision to move from India -> Gerry’s memories about seeing a camel from the train. WHAT THE HECK?!

Pardon me saying but most Wikipedia posts have better construction than this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having finished the TV series on PBS and falling in love with the zany and flawed Durrell family I immediately wanted to know what happened to them after they left Corfu. I also wanted to read Gerry's books that started it all. I now know the rest of the story but almost wished I didn't. The book is well written, engaging and fast paced. The author has clearly done his research and conducted interviews with living relatives, and sources. There are numerous family photos and early writings and drawings by Gerald Durrell. The author did an excellent job, but for me the "fairy tale" was shattered. I only wish I could go back and in my minds-eye see the sun set over Corfu as they dined with their feet in the ocean and believe they lived happily ever after....

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watching the Masterpiece Theater series “!The Durrells in Corfu” piqued my interest in this unusual family. While Gerald Durrell’s memoirs of a childhood on the Greek Island of Corfu introduced us to his somewhat eccentric, but loving family, it also seemed too idyllic to be real.
This biography provides more accurate detail. That said, the fact that Gerald Durrell left out certain people and changed a few facts from his memoir indicates a certain sensitivity and respect he must have felt towards them. Personally I preferred Durrells’s recollections, written with humor and love, over the rather dry reporting style of Michael Haag.

[Eddie Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief and charming family biography, focussing very closely on the Corfu years, and wonderfully illustrated. Haag tactfully corrects the fabrications and omissions in Lawrence’s and Gerald’s accounts. A good, swift introduction.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently read and thoroughly enjoyed My Family and Other Animals by Gerald I found that this was a great follow up read. I now know more about not only the Durrell family but also the people they met during the time they spent living in Corfu.

[Tree high · Rating 4 out of 5]

♥️

[Lauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

No eks ta väga informatsioonirikas oli, eriti neile inimestele - ja neid inimesi on väga palju - kellele Gerry Durrelli "Minu pere ja muud loomad" olid lapsepõlve helge ja soe valguslaik ahistavas hallis nõukogude Eesti nüristavas tegelikkuses. Troopiline kliima, kristallselged soojad veed, pilvitu taevas, töölkäimise orjusest vaba hedonistlike kalduvustega elu, kummalised kohalikud mitte vähem kummalise perekonna elu-olu jälgimas - mis siin üldse on midagi sellist mis kellelegi EI MEELDIKS? Tegelikkus, tuleb välja, oli ikka veidi teistsugune. Gerry oma raamatus on seganud aegu ja paiku, päris palju jätnud rääkimata, päris palju ilustanud või hoopis maha vaikinud, mõned lood juhtusid hoopis kellegi teisega ja enamus lugusid päris nii värvikad ei olnud, kui raamatus kirjeldatud. Eriti masendav oli sõda mis paradiisliku idülli jõhkralt hävitas, ei Gerry ega Larry saanud Korfule tagasi kaks- või kolmkümmend aastat ja siis oli nende nooruse paradiis muidugi juba üsna kadunud.
Sellest hoolimata suht informatiivne, muuhulgas saab teada mis perekond Durrellitest edasi sai. Ütleme siis et soovitatatav Gerry Durrelli Korfu-triloogia (või ka ainult triloogia esimese osa, legendaarse "Minu pere ja muud loomad") fännidele, kuid hoiatusega, et see võib veidi helget muljet toore ja halli argipäevaga ära rikkuda.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting companion piece to Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy. I had read My Family and Other Animals immediately before reading this and that book and events from it are quoted extensively.

The author was apparently a friend of the family, particularly Lawrence Durrell, so it made for a very interesting retelling of his years on Corfu. What Gerald Durrell didn't say was that Lawrence was already married and didn't live with the family, preferring to rent rooms elsewhere with his wife. And certain events in My Family should be read as fiction.

It hasn't spoiled my enjoyment Gerald Durrell's book, but it certainly has made me see that life for the Durrells on Corfu wasn't quite like that and the family wasn't entirely happy with Gerald's depiction of them in it.

[Joan Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the real Durrells and their lives prior to, during and after their sojourn in Corfu. The books and TV version are not far off in their portraits. All the children had multiple marriages and fairly successful careers especially Gerald as a zoologist and writer, and Lawrence as a literary maven. Margo too had adventures and wrote at least one book. Leslie continued his bad-boy ways, but managed to stay out of jail. The family were famous for their unconventional lifestyle and readers have been left with books to savor—Gerry’s wonderful trilogy focused on his family and his animals, and Lawrence for The Alexandria Quartet and various travel books. Haag’s book contains a wealth of photographs that bring the original Durrells to life.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

IF you enjoyed The Durrells of Corfu on PBS ..... IF you then read The Corfu Trilogy written by Gerald Durrell .... THEN you'll enjoy this book. Michael Haag has researched the writings and lives of the Durrell family and written this book to clarify some of the accounts. He has helped separate the fact from the fiction and it was fun to discover which is which. Lots of interesting tidbits of information, and several photos from the family archives which also give meaning to a lot of the stories.

[David Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

As complete an account of the extraordinary Durrell family as one could wish. This places Gerald’s lightly fictionalised and brilliant “My Family” trilogy and Larry’s literature in context, from the family’s roots in Imperial India, the tragic loss of their father, Lawrence Samuel, and subsequent peripatetic and bohemian existence in England and Corfu.
If you, like me, yearned to know what became of Spiro, Theodore, Margo and the rest as well as Larry’s encounters with Henry Miller and Dylan Thomas, look no further.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The facts behind Gerald Durrell's romantic and hilarious account of the time his family - Mother, two brothers, sister, dog - spent on Corfu in the prewar years. Despite some omissions and changes for the sake of a good story, much of it happened the way Durrell describes it; everyone will be cheered and relieved to learn that Spiro and Theo are absolutely real. Especially interesting to me were the bits about Bournemouth, where I grew up, and Norwood, where I live now.

[Rati Mehrotra · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My Family and Other Animals" was one of my favorite books as a kid. I first read it when I was 10, and then I went on to read all of Gerry's books. I picked this biography up because I was curious about what happened to the family. It's not a terribly well-written book, but my curiosity is satisfied and I enjoyed the photographs, especially of Gerry with his animals.

[Caroline Goodson · Rating 2 out of 5]

May seem harsh 2 stars. But there’s a lot of toing and froing with lots happening without a lot really happening. Maybe because I know about The Durrells from the TV series but I took a long time to get through this as I wasn’t grabbed!

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a biography which follows a lot of people, I found Michael Haag's Thw Durrells of Corfu rather brief. It was not as engaging as I was expecting it to be, and some elements seemed skimmed over. Overall, however, it was nice enough, and some of the photographic inclusions were nothing short of charming.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes the Durrell family's life before, during, and after their sojourn in Corfu. It answered a lot of questions I had after reading Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy. It was interesting to learn a bit about the father and the time the family spent in India. And it's nice to know what happened to everyone when they left the island. A very good book about an amazing family.