THE FOLIO SOCIETY

'Gradually the magic of the island settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen. Each day had a tranquillity, a timelessness, about it, so that you wished it would never end ...'

'It was originally intended to be a mildly nostalgic account of the natural history of the island, but I made a grave mistake of introducing my family into the book in the first few pages ...' In 1935 the Durrell family swapped the clammy shores of England for the Greek island of Corfu. While Laurence broods behind his typewriter, and Margo sunbathes with monastic rigour, a garden of earthly delights unfolds before 10-year-old Gerry. Days are spent lying on his stomach, feet in the air, in earnest study of the exotic creatures around him - geckos, scorpions, emperor moths, glow-worms, owls, butterflies, trapdoor spiders.

No less colourful a menagerie lay at home. A border official accurately described the Durrells as 'One travelling circus and Staff'. From Mother, 'spectacles askew', forever pottering amid a bubbling selection of pots, to their guardian angel Spiro ('leaves everythings to me - I'll fix thems'), theirs is a dysfunctional, chaotic and lovable household, into which Gerry's collection of 'small uglies' spreads a good deal of anarchy. It was the time of their lives.

Gerald Durrell's enchanting account of his family's Mediterranean idyll is loved by readers of all ages. He describes Corfu so enticingly that one can almost hear the cicadas and smell the garlic; he fills his tales of the family's mishaps with the same delightful detail as the portraits of his beloved insects. From moonlight picnics to swimming with porpoises, My Family and Other Animals relives a childhood you somehow wish had been yours.