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Collection of eight short stories by the author observing absurdity that abounds in the world.
National Bestseller: The complete trilogy that inspired Masterpiece production The Durrells in Corfu in one volume. The tales of a naturalist and his family, who left England for the Greek island of Corfu—where they interacted with fascinating locals of both human and animal varieties—these memoirs have become beloved bestsellers and inspired the delightful series that aired on PBS television. Included in this three-book collection are: My Family and Other Animals: Ten-year-old Gerald Durrell arrives on sun-drenched Corfu with this family and pursues his interest in natural history, making friends with the island’s fauna—from toads and tortoises to scorpions and geckos—while reveling in the joyous chaos of growing up in an unconventional household. Birds, Beasts and Relatives: Written after a boyhood spent studying zoology, this memoir is part nature guide, part coming-of-age tale, and all charmingly funny memoir. The Garden of the Gods: In the conclusion of the trilogy, Durrell shares more tales of wild animals and his even wilder family, including his mother, Louisa, and his siblings Lawrence, Leslie, and Margo, in the years before World War II. “[Durrell’s] books have an unfailing charm. . . . It is a tribute to his skill that one never tires of his accounts” (Chicago Tribune). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.
In 1947, with two young children to support, Margaret Durrell took the advice of her maiden aunt and started a boarding house in Bournemouth. But any hopes of a conventional clientele were dashed as the establishment was colonized by a host of eccentrics, comprising, among others, a painter of nudes, a battered wife, a chauvinist bricklayer, and a Maltese transsexual.
The beloved naturist and author of My Family and Other Animals shares the pleasures and pitfalls of opening a zoo on the English Channel Island of Jersey. Spurred by his passion for animals and a lifelong dream, in the spring of 1959 Gerald Durrell opened the Jersey Zoo—now known as the Durrell Wildlife Park—on the grounds of an old manor house. The menagerie provided a safe habitat for rare and endangered species and exposed its human visitors to the wonders of nature. Dealing with escapee animals and overdrawn bank accounts, Durrell soon discovered that owning and operating a fledgling zoo was no easy task. But despite the setbacks, these charming, often hilarious stories make clear that, for Durrell, ensuring the park’s success and helping the creatures he loved so dearly was worth any obstacle. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.
The Durrell family are immortalised in Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and its ITV adaptation, The Durrells. But what of the real life Durrells? Why did they go to Corfu in the first place - and what happened to them after they left? The real story of the Durrells is as surprising and fascinating as anything in Gerry's books, and Michael Haag, with his first hand knowledge of the family, is the ideal narrator, drawing on diaries, letters and unpublished autobiographical fragments. The Durrells of Corfu describes the family's upbringing in India and the crisis that brought them to England and then Greece. It recalls the genuine characters they encountered on Corfu - Theodore the biologist, the taxi driver Spiro Halikiopoulos and the prisoner Kosti - as well as the visit of American writer Henry Miller. And Haag has unearthed the story of how the Durrells left Corfu, including Margo's and Larry's last-minute escapes before the War. An extended epilogue looks at the emergence of Larry as a world famous novelist, and Gerry as a naturalist and champion of endangered species, as well as the lives of the rest of the family, their friends and other animals. The book is illustrated with family photos from the Gerald Durrell Archive, many of them reproduced here for the first time.
'What we all need,' said Larry, 'is sunshine . . . a country where we can grow.' 'Yes, dear, that would be nice,' agreed Mother, not really listening. 'I had a letter from George this morning - he says Corfu's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go to Greece?' 'Very well, dear, if you like,' said Mother unguardedly. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood. 'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph
Uproarious antics fill this genre-crossing collection of six stories from the beloved British naturalist and author of the Corfu Trilogy. The eccentric Durrell family sets off on an ill-fated excursion in “The Picnic” and embarks on a Greek cruise in “The Maiden Voyage.” Next, things take a turn for the diabolical when a solo Durrell runs into a former flame in “The Public School Education”—and then finds trouble of a different sort in “The Havoc of Havelock.” Finally, the typically jocular Durrell unexpectedly shifts to the macabre with the surprise cuisine of “The Michelin Man” and the spine-tingling horror of “The Entrance.” With his knack for describing his often outlandish, always entertaining adventures, Gerald Durrell serves up an engrossing blend of genres in this intriguing collection of stories. Including both fiction and nonfiction, The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium reveals the wide-ranging talents of the famed naturalist and memoirist. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.
Set in Bangladesh and the United States, the eight stories in The Bird Catcher address gender expectations, familial love, and questions of identity and belonging. In "The Anomalous Wife," when Nirjhara decides she wants to walk into the ocean, her husband of thirty years is confused: she has the perfect life, he insists, the life of a dutiful housewife and mother who wants for nothing in her adopted country. The staff at the psychiatric facility can't even pronounce Nirjhara's name, let alone understand her mordant humor and her use of wide-ranging literary references (from Rabindranath Tagore to Sylvia Plath to The Ancient Mariner) to describe her despair. The other stories are equally resonant and thought-provoking. A college professor has to contend with a student who "laughed every time I struggled on a word that didn't want to come out of my forked tongue: one part third world, one part hyphenated American." A young woman enjoys a loving but complicated relationship with her mother-in-law, a Bangladeshi immigrant who is both ebullient and opinionated, charming and exasperating. In the title story, drawing on fairy tale motifs, string theory, Sufi philosphy, and other traditions, a bird and a recluse argue over the nature of time and the meaning of freedom. The Bird Catcher offers wide-ranging variations on the theme of diasporic identity, intriguing glimpses into suppressed, fragmented, and resilient lives, and a meditation on the power and limitations of language. As Nirjhara explains in "The Anomalous Wife," "Life is all about right word choices, right verbs, and right prepositions. If you walk by the ocean, you are a lover of life. If you walk into it out of your love for the ocean, you are kept here as a prisoner until you learn the correct use of prepositions."
Great-Uncle Lancelot, redoubtable explorer and enthusiastic naturalist, takes his niece and twin nephews on an extraordinary journey around the world, introducing them to a wide variety of animals.
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M