My Family and Other Animals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Author | Gerald Durrell |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Puffin; several others |
| Released | [1956 in literature |
My Family and Other Animals is an autobiographical work by naturalist Gerald Durrell, telling of his childhood spent on the Greek island of Corfu between 1935 and 1939. It describes the life of the Durrell family on the island in a humorous manner, and also richly discusses the fauna of the island. It is the most famous of Durrell's Corfu trilogy, together with Birds, Beasts and Relatives, and The Garden of the Gods.
Durrell had already written several successful books about his trips collecting animals in the wild for zoos when My Family and Other Animals came out in 1956. Its comic exaggeration of the foibles of his family — including brother Lawrence Durrell, who later became a famous novelist — and heartfelt appreciation of the natural world made it very successful. It launched Durrell's career as owner of the Jersey Zoological Park on the Channel Island of Jersey, as well as novel-writer and television personality.
[edit] TV versions
My Family was made into a BBC television series in 1987 written by Charles Wood and directed by Peter Barber-Fleming. It starred Hannah Gordon and Brian Blessed and is now seen as "a nostalgic reminder of the quality family orientated television drama that used to dominate Sunday television schedules, but which now sadly appears to be on the wane". ]. In 2005 it was remade by the BBC into a one-off 90-minute comedy-drama, starring Eugene Simon as the young Gerry. [1]
[edit] Theatre
In 2006, Theatre-in-Education, a venture of the Jersey Arts Centre, will produce a stage version of My Family and Other Animals, on the occasion of 50 years of the book release. The play aims to raise conservation awareness levels in children. [2]
