Gerald Durrell's beloved account of his childhood in Corfu published as a beautiful Penguin
Clothbound Classics edition for the first time'When My Family and Other Animals was published
it was as if someone had flung back the curtains thrown up the windows and let in a stream of
bright light' - Kathryn Hughes Guardian'Gerald Durrell was magic' - Sir David
Attenborough'Living in Corfu was rather like living in one of the more flamboyant and slapstick
comic operas'It is 1935 and the Durrells have escaped the leaden summer skies of Bournemouth to
arrive 'like a troupe of medieval tumblers' on the sun-drenched island of Corfu for a new life.
Gerald Durrell's beloved portrayal of his chaotic family - beatific Mother Roger the dog
diet-obsessed Margo book-loving Lawrence and gun-wielding Leslie - as well as his own
adventures with a burgeoning menagerie of beasts birds and insects (including an owl called
Ulysses) is a timeless account of an idyllic childhood and an uproarious portrait of the
English abroad.
