Gerald Durrell personal life. The true story of the Durrells in Corfu

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It so happened that I received Ilya Astakhov’s article about Gerald Durrell
March 8, being on the shore of that same Ionian Sea, waiting
funny papers with round bluish seals that will allow you to walk
on the local salt water. It's pouring rain outside the window. Steam from the mouth. Under
with your hand - a glass of ouzo (local anise). And Darrell. What more could you want? :)

And since today is March 8, then let this publication become
congratulations to our grandmothers, mothers, sisters and daughters, for
whose books Durrell became the first pebble to jump across
smooth the water towards the endless world full of amazing
plants and intricate animals. I’m sure Ilya will support me!

Kostya Guide

Anyone who dreamed of traveling to distant, unknown lands as a child knows Gerald Durrell. Most have read his books, which tell of the naturalist’s expeditions with love and humor. Many have seen the Soviet television series " Darrell in Russia", where the middle-aged, but still tireless Gerald constituted serious competition for Drozdov and Senkevich.

Ten year old Jerry saw Corfu in 1935. His eccentric family lived on the island until the outbreak of World War II. About what Darrell told in the trilogy " My family and other animals, Birds, animals and relatives, Garden of the Gods"and in other books. Since then, grateful readers have been striving for Corfu to bring book pages to life and follow the paths of a young naturalist.

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Of course, a lot has changed over the past eighty years. Nature and the patriarchal world of the old Greece pretty spoiled by the modern tourism business. But something can still be seen now.

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Corfu - capital of Corfu

To find traces Gerald Durrell, it is absolutely not necessary to climb into some island wilds. In the very center of the capital, which according to good Greek custom is also called Corfu, there is a park of brothers Durrells(formerly Boschetto). "Brothers" because the fate of Lawrence, the older brother Jerry, is also connected to the island. And among highbrow intellectuals, he is an equally famous writer, the author of the tetralogy “Alexandria Quartet.”

In the park you can see bas-relief busts of Gerald and Lawrence, whose noses are traditionally rubbed by tourists until they shine. It seems to me that Jerry doesn't mind such familiarity.

House in Kalami

The most “Darrell-esque” place on the island of Corfu is traditionally considered to be a white house in the village Kalami, about thirty kilometers north of the capital, directly opposite the Albanian coast. On many Russian-language tourist sites this house is called “that snow-white villa Durrells" In fact, the object has very little relation to the famous naturalist. It was rented by the eldest brother, Lawrence, when he quarreled with his mother.

The house is nice, you can have a snack in it and even rent a room.

Everything around is thoroughly built up, so you can be sure that no modern writer will ever choose this place for creative solitude.

To lure fans Gerald, there are figurines of funny animals placed around.

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Three Durrell villas

Those who are well acquainted with island history from books Durrells, remember that the family lived in three villas: Strawberry-pink (The StrawBerry-Pink Villa), Daffodil-Yellow Villa And The Snow-White Villa. Let me explain how the family could afford such luxury.

Mother Darrell was a widow with three minor children in her arms. And with the interest from the capital remaining after the death of her husband (a civil engineer), she could not afford quality housing in England. Greece was much cheaper. That's how we moved The Durrells from house to house on the island of Corfu, calling the properties villas and giving them colorful names.

By the way, off to school Jerry didn't go at all. His education was carried out by random people, which seemed to benefit the future naturalist.

In an old photograph from D. Botting’s book “Biography Gerald Durrell" - one of the teachers of the young Darrell, Dr. Theo Stefanidis, who shared and encouraged the young man’s penchant for studying nature.

Strawberry pink

The first villa The Durrells filmed for about six months, and she was in Perama, near the current airport. Then it was a quiet fishing village surrounded by olive groves. Subsequent owners extensively renovated the building. No more overgrown garden, hedges and old Victorian house. That is, the house is there, but complete with a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a concrete fence and other joys of civilization. Therefore, the object is practically uninteresting. But there was a beautiful view of Mouse Island (Pontikonissi) and the Kanoni Peninsula.

View of the island of Pontikonissi (Mouse) from the side of the Durrell house (in the lower left corner there is an archival photo with little Jerry). His sister Margot loved to sunbathe naked on the island, embarrassing the monk who lived there.

And this is what the same island and village look like Perama from a modern dam. Now planes are landing right above him, and the boys are gawking at the roaring, sprawled iron birds.

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Narcissus Yellow

Numerous bohemian guests of the older brother, who already considered himself a great writer, made a small home Durrells cramped. And the family moves to a more spacious old Venetian villa in the town Kontokali(Gouvia Bay, about 5 km north of the capital). The villa comes with a small private pier overlooking the islet of Lazaretto. AND Jerry gets his own boat for his birthday.

“Bootle Bumtrinket” - that’s what Lawrence, with his sharp tongue, dubbed it, hinting at some design features. The translator of the Soviet edition successfully chose the phrase "Bootle Thicknose" and made life easier for the censors.

On the Bootle, an eleven-year-old boy makes independent trips along the coast, studies the life of sea inhabitants and enjoys nature. This was the start of a career Darrell-naturalist.

View from the shore of the island of Lazarette, where Admiral Ushakov set up a Russian hospital, and during the Second World War there was a concentration camp. Now the island is uninhabited, only ruins and memorial plaques remain on it.

Almost the whole family is on the porch Narcissus Yellow Villa(from left to right: Margot's sister, Nancy, Lawrence's wife, Lawrence himself, Jerry and mother Darrell, photographed by middle brother Leslie)

This villa has been preserved but is privately owned. There are legends about fans breaking into the territory Darrell and a kind maid who, in the absence of the owners, allowed me to photograph something there. A certain blogger-yachtsman John did something simpler: he came up from the sea on a boat and took some good photos:

Snow White

The family's last refuge Durrells(since September 1937) became Snow-white villa, again in Perama, not far from the first one. A large Georgian building overlooking the Halikopoulou Lagoon. This is already close to luxury. Your own olive grove! And their own church (although it was unlikely to interest any of them) Durrells).

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The building is still privately owned by the family that rented it out. Durrells. They say that no repairs have been made there. If so, then, I believe, due to lack of funds, and not out of respect for the memory of the famous writer.
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Jerry was here

So, all attempts to follow the tracks Gerald Durrell on Corfu doomed to failure? Strawberry villas and in Perama actually replaced by a new building. Yellow Villa V Kontokali And Snow White V Cressida closed to tourists as private property. Why do we need any villas at all if we are interested in a naturalist writer?

You can sail to Mouse Island. Wander around the shallow lagoon of Halikopoulou, where I gravitated every morning Jerry for frogs and water bugs. Currently, the airport's runway occupies approximately half of the lagoon, but is closer to Perama If you wish, you can see traces of those same ditches, the first of which were made by the Venetians to collect salt. And now this half-flooded shore, occupied in some places by vegetable gardens, serves as a nesting ground for birds and is teeming with shallow-water marine life. It is also not uncommon for fishermen to explore what Jerry called them “chess fields.” Of course, they look completely different now.

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A similar lake, Scottini, is located somewhere near Kontokali, around Narcissus Yellow Villa, but I couldn't find it. By the way, not far from Lawrence's house in Kalami there is a place called Kuluri. After the war Gerald I was going to buy a house there, but it didn’t work out for the second time to enter the same river of a carefree childhood. It’s a pity... There are nice places there that are not as affected by civilization as the neighboring Lawrence Memorial House Darrell. For example, a wild bay with the name Khukhulio, funny to the Russian ear.

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Interestingly, Gerald Durrell until the end of his life he felt guilty before the residents Corfu. He believed that with his books and films he was helping to increase the flow of tourists and thereby destroying the nature of the island. What to say? Everyone would like such self-criticism - it would definitely not hurt nature.

99 facts from the life of Gerald Durrell

Like every Soviet child, I loved Gerald Durrell's books since childhood. Taking into account the fact that I loved animals and learned to read very early, the bookcases were meticulously searched as a child for any of Darrell’s books, and the books themselves were read many times.

Then I grew up, my love for animals subsided a little, but my love for Darrell’s books remained. True, over time I began to notice that this love was not entirely cloudless. If before I simply devoured books, as a reader should, smiling and sad in the right places, later, reading them as an adult, I discovered something like understatements. There were few of them, they were skillfully hidden, but for some reason it seemed to me that the ironic and good-natured merry fellow Darrell somehow here and there seemed to be covering up a piece of his life or deliberately focusing the reader’s attention on other things. I wasn’t a lawyer then, but for some reason I felt that something was wrong here.

To my shame, I have not read any biographies of Darrell. It seemed to me that the author already described his life in great detail in numerous books, leaving no room for speculation. Yes, sometimes, already on the Internet, I came across “shocking” revelations from various sources, but they were artless and, frankly speaking, were hardly capable of seriously shocking anyone. Well, yes, Gerald himself, it turns out, drank like a fish. Well, yes, he divorced his first wife. Well, yes, there seem to be rumors that the Durrells were not as friendly and loving a family as it seems to the inexperienced reader...

But at some point I came across a biography of Gerald Durrell by Douglas Botting. The book turned out to be quite voluminous and I started reading it by accident. But once I started, I couldn’t stop. I can't explain why. I must admit, I have long found much more interesting books than the books of Gerald Durrell. And I'm not ten years old anymore. And yes, I realized a long time ago that people very often tell lies - for a variety of reasons. But I read it. Not because I have some kind of manic interest in Gerald Durrell or because I persistently strive to reveal everything that his family hid from journalists for many years. No. I just thought it was interesting to find all those tiny innuendos and suggestive signs that I caught as a child.

In this regard, Botting's book was ideal. As befits a good biographer, he talks in great detail and calmly about Gerald Durrell throughout his life. From childhood to old age. He is dispassionate and, despite immense respect for the subject of the biography, does not seek to hide his vices, nor does he solemnly demonstrate them to the public. Botting writes about a person, balancedly, carefully, leaving nothing out. This is by no means a dirty laundry hunter, quite the opposite. Sometimes he is even shyly laconic in those parts of Darrell’s biography that would be enough for newspapers to write a couple of hundred catchy headlines.

As a matter of fact, the entire subsequent text essentially consists of about 90% of Botting’s notes; the rest had to be filled in from other sources. I simply wrote down individual facts as I read, solely for myself, without expecting that the summary would take more than two pages. But by the end of reading there were twenty of them, and I realized that I really didn’t know much about my childhood idol. And once again, no, I’m not talking about dirty secrets, family vices and other obligatory vicious ballast of a good-looking British family. Here I post only those facts that, while reading, surprised me, amazed me, or seemed interesting. Simply put, individual and small details of Darrell's life, the understanding of which, it seems to me, will allow us to take a more careful look at his life and read the books in a new way.

I'll break the post into three parts to fit it in. In addition, all the facts will be neatly divided into chapters - in accordance with the milestones of Darrell's life.

The first chapter will be the shortest, as it tells about Darrell's early childhood and his life in India.

1. Initially, the Durrells lived in British India, where Durrell Sr. worked fruitfully as a civil engineer. He managed to provide for his family, the income from his enterprises and securities helped them for a long time, but he also had to pay a severe price - at the age of forty-something Lawrence Darrell (senior) died, apparently from a stroke. After his death, the decision was made to return to England, where, as you know, the family did not stay long.

2. It would seem that Jerry Darrell, a lively and spontaneous child with a monstrous thirst for learning new things, should have become, if not an excellent student in school, then at least the soul of the party. But no. School was so disgusting to him that he felt bad every time he was forcibly taken there. The teachers, for their part, considered him a dull and lazy child. And he himself almost lost consciousness at the mere mention of school.

3. Despite their British citizenship, all family members had a surprisingly similar attitude towards their historical homeland, namely, they could not stand it. Larry Darrell called it Pudding Island and argued that a mentally healthy person in Foggy Albion is not able to survive for more than a week. The rest were practically unanimous with him and tirelessly confirmed their position with practice. Mother and Margot subsequently settled firmly in France, followed by the adult Gerald. Leslie settled down in Kenya. As for Larry, he was constantly traveling all over the world, and he visited England on short visits, and with obvious displeasure. However, I have already gotten ahead of myself.

4. The mother of the large and noisy Durrell family, despite the fact that she appears in her son’s texts as an absolutely infallible person with only merits, had her own little weaknesses, one of which was alcohol from her youth. Their mutual friendship was born in India, and after the death of her husband it only steadily grew stronger. According to the recollections of acquaintances and eyewitnesses, Mrs. Darrell went to bed exclusively in the company of a bottle of gin, but in the preparation of homemade wines she outshone everyone and everything. However, looking ahead again, the love of alcohol seems to have been passed on to all members of this family, albeit unevenly.

Let's move on to Jerry's childhood in Corfu, which later became the basis for the wonderful book My Family and Other Animals. I read this book as a child and re-read it probably twenty times. And the older I got, the more often it seemed to me that this narrative, endlessly optimistic, bright and ironic, was missing something. The pictures of the cloudless existence of the Durrell family in the pristine Greek paradise were too beautiful and natural. I can’t say that Darrell seriously embellished reality, glossed over some shameful details or something like that, but discrepancies with reality in some places may surprise the reader.

According to researchers of Durrell's work, biographers and critics, the entire trilogy ("My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts and Relatives", "Garden of the Gods") is not very uniform in terms of authenticity and the reliability of the events presented, so it should not be assumed completely Autobiographical is still not worth it. It is generally accepted that only the first book became truly documentary; the events described in it fully correspond to the real ones, perhaps with minor inclusions of fantasy and inaccuracies. It should, however, be taken into account that Darrell began writing the book at the age of thirty-one, and in Corfu he was ten, so many details of his childhood could easily be lost in memory or acquired imaginary details. Other books are much more prone to fiction, being more of a fusion of fiction and non-fiction. Thus, the second book (“Birds, Beasts and Relatives”) includes a large number of fictional stories, Darrell later even regretted including some of them. Well, the third (“Garden of the Gods”) is actually a work of art with your favorite characters.

Corfu: Margot, Nancy, Larry, Jerry, mom.

5. Judging by the book, Larry Darrell constantly lived with the entire family, annoying its members with irritating self-confidence and poisonous sarcasm, and also serving from time to time as a source of trouble of various shapes, properties and sizes. This is not entirely true. The fact is that Larry never lived in the same house with his family. From the first day in Greece, he and his wife Nancy rented their own house, and at certain periods of time they even lived in a neighboring city, but only periodically dropped in to visit their relatives. Moreover, Margot and Leslie, when they reached the age of twenty, also showed attempts to live an independent life and for some time lived separately from the rest of the family.

Larry Darrell

6. Don’t you remember his wife Nancy?.. However, it would be surprising if they did, since she is simply absent from the book “My Family and Other Animals”. But she was not invisible. Nancy often visited the Durrell houses with Larry and certainly deserved at least a couple of paragraphs of text. There is an opinion that it was erased from the manuscript by the author, allegedly because of a bad relationship with the mother of a troubled family, but this is not so. Gerald deliberately did not mention her in the book in order to establish an emphasis on "family", leaving only the Durrells in focus. Nancy would hardly have made a supporting figure like Theodore or Spiro; after all, she was not a servant, but she didn’t want to be associated with the family either. In addition, at the time of publication of the book (1956), Larry and Nancy’s marriage had broken up, so there was even less desire to remember the old things. So, just in case, the author completely lost his brother’s wife between the lines. It was as if she was not in Corfu at all.

Larry and his wife Nancy, 1934

7. Jerry's temporary teacher, Kralewski, a shy dreamer and author of crazy stories “about the Lady,” actually existed, only his last name had to be changed, just in case, from the original “Krajewski” to “Kralewski.” This was hardly done for fear of prosecution from the island's most inspired myth-maker. The fact is that Krajewski, along with his mother and all the canaries, died tragically during the war - a German bomb fell on his house.

8. I won’t go into detail about Theodore Stefanides, a naturalist and Jerry’s first real teacher. He has distinguished himself enough over his long life to deserve it. I will only note that Theo and Jerry’s friendship lasted not only during the “Corfucian” period. Over the decades, they met many times and, although they did not work together, they maintained an excellent relationship until their deaths. The fact that he played a significant role in the Durrell family is evidenced by the fact that both writing brothers, Larry and Jerry, subsequently dedicated books to him, “The Greek Islands” (Lawrence Durrell) and “Birds, Beasts and Kin” (Gerald Durrell ). Darrell also dedicated “The Young Naturalist,” one of his most successful works, to him.

Theodore Stephanides

9. Remember the colorful story about the Greek Kostya, who killed his wife, but whom the prison authorities periodically let him go for a walk and unwind? This meeting actually happened, with one small difference - the Darrell who met the strange prisoner was named Leslie. Yes, Jerry attributed it to himself just in case.

10. The text reveals that the Booth Thicktail, the Durrell family's epic boat on which Jerry carried out his scientific expeditions, was built by Leslie. In fact, it was just bought. All her technical improvements consisted of installing a homemade mast (unsuccessful).

11. Another of Jerry's teachers, called Peter (actually Pat Evans), did not leave the island during the war. Instead, he joined the partisans and showed himself very well in this field. Unlike poor fellow Kraevsky, he even remained alive and later returned to his homeland as a hero.

12. The reader involuntarily gets the feeling that the Durrell family found their Eden immediately after arriving on the island, only staying at the hotel for a short time. In fact, this period of their life dragged on for quite some time, and it was difficult to call it pleasant. The fact is that due to some financial circumstances, the mother of the family temporarily lost access to funds from England. So for some time the family lived practically from hand to mouth, on pasture. What kind of Eden is this... The true savior was Spiro, who not only found a new home for the Durrells, but also in some unknown way settled all disagreements with the Greek bank.

13. It is unlikely that ten-year-old Gerald Durrell, accepting goldfish from Spiro, stolen by a resourceful Greek from the royal pond, imagined that thirty years later he himself would become an honored guest in the royal palace.

Spiro and Jerry

14. By the way, financial circumstances, among others, explain the family’s departure back to England. The Durrells originally had shares in some Burmese enterprise, inherited from their late father. With the advent of the war, this financial stream was completely blocked, and others became thinner every day. The end result was that Mission Durrell was faced with the need to return to London to organize her financial assets.

15. From the text, one gets the full feeling that the family has returned home in full force with an appendage like a bunch of animals. But this is a serious inaccuracy. Only Jerry himself, his mother, his brother Leslie and the Greek maid returned to England. All the rest remained in Corfu, despite the outbreak of war and the threatening position of Corfu in the light of recent military-political events. Larry and Nancy stayed there until the last, but then they finally left Corfu by ship. The most surprising behavior of all was Margot, who in the text is depicted as a very narrow-minded and simple-minded person. She fell in love with Greece so much that she refused to return even if it was occupied by German troops. Agree, remarkable fortitude for a simple-minded girl of twenty years old. By the way, she still left the island on the last plane, succumbing to the persuasion of one flight technician, whom she later married.

16. By the way, there is one more small detail regarding Margot that is still in the shadows. It is believed that her brief absence from the island (mentioned by Darrell) is due to her sudden pregnancy and departure to England for an abortion. It’s difficult to say something here. Botting doesn't mention anything like that, but he's very tactful and hasn't been seen trying to deliberately pull skeletons out of Darrell's closets.

17. By the way, the relationship between the British family and the native Greek population was not as idyllic as it seems from the text. No, no serious quarrels arose with the local residents, but those around them did not look at the Durrells very favorably. Dissolute Leslie (more about whom is yet to come) had plenty of fun in his time and will be remembered for his not always sober antics, while Margot was generally considered a fallen woman, perhaps partly because of her predilection for revealing swimsuits.

Here ends one of the main chapters of Gerald Durrell's life. As he himself admitted many times, Corfu left a very serious imprint on him. But Gerald Durrell after Corfu is a completely different Gerald Durrell. He is no longer a boy, carefree studying the fauna in the front garden, but already a teenager and young man, taking his first steps in the direction he has chosen for the rest of his life. Perhaps the most exciting chapter of his life begins. Adventurous expeditions, rushing, impulses characteristic of youth, hopes and aspirations, love...

18. Darrell's education ended before it really began. He did not go to school, did not receive a higher education, and did not secure any scientific titles for himself. Apart from self-education, his only “scientific” help was a short period of work in an English zoo in the lowest position of an auxiliary worker. However, at the end of his life he was an “honorary professor” of several universities. But this will be very, very long time ago...

19. Young Gerald did not go to war due to a happy coincidence of circumstances - he turned out to be the owner of an advanced sinus disease (chronic catarrh). “Do you want to fight, son? – the officer asked him honestly. "No, sir." "You are a coward?" "Yes, sir". The officer sighed and sent the failed conscript on his way, mentioning, however, that in order to call oneself a coward, a fair amount of courage is required. Be that as it may, Gerald Durrell did not go to war, which is good news.

20. A similar failure befell his brother Leslie. A big fan of everything that could shoot, Leslie wanted to volunteer for the war, but he was also turned away by soulless doctors - he had problems with his ears. Judging by the individual events of his life, what was located between them was also subject to treatment, but more on that separately and later. I can only note that in his family, despite the ardent love of his mother, he was considered a dark and dissolute horse, regularly causing anxiety and trouble.

21. Soon after returning to his historical homeland, Leslie managed to give birth to a child to that same Greek maid and, although the times were far from Victorian, the situation turned out to be very delicate. And she seriously tarnished the family’s reputation after it turned out that Leslie was not going to marry or recognize the child. Thanks to the care of Margot and the mother, the situation was put under control, and the child was given shelter and upbringing. However, this did not have a pedagogical effect on Leslie.

22. For a long time he could not find work, either openly idle, or embarking on all sorts of dubious adventures, from delivering alcohol (is it legal?) to what his family shyly called “speculation.” In general, the guy was on his way to success, while simultaneously trying to find his place in a big and cruel world. Almost didn't come. I mean, at some point he had to urgently get ready for a business trip to Kenya, where he would work for many years. In general, he evokes a certain sympathy. The only one of the Durrells who was never able to find his calling, but he was surrounded on all sides by famous relatives.

23. There is a feeling that Leslie became an outcast immediately after Corfu. The Darrells somehow very quickly and willingly cut off his branch from the family tree, despite the fact that for some time they still shared shelter with him. Margo about her brother: “ Leslie is a short, unauthorized home invader, a Rabelaisian figure, lavishing paint on canvases or deeply immersed in the labyrinths of weapons, boats, beer and women, also without a penny, having invested all his inheritance in a fishing boat, which sank before its first voyage in Poole Harbor».

Leslie Darrell.

24. By the way, Margot herself also did not escape commercial temptation. She turned her part of the inheritance into a fashionable “boarding house”, from which she intended to have a stable profit. She wrote her own memoirs on this subject, but I must admit, I have not had time to read them yet. However, taking into account the fact that later, with two living brothers, she was forced to work as a maid on the liner, the “boarding business” still did not justify itself.

Margo Durrell

25. Gerald Durrell's expeditions did not make him famous, although they were readily covered in newspapers and on the radio. He became famous overnight by publishing his first book, “The Overloaded Ark.” Yes, those were the times when a person, having written the first book in his life, suddenly became a world celebrity. By the way, Jerry didn’t want to write this book. Experiencing a physiological aversion to writing, he tormented himself and his household for a long time and completed the text only thanks to his brother Larry, who endlessly insisted and motivated. The first was quickly followed by two more. All became instant bestsellers. Like all the other books that he published after them.

26. The only book that Gerald admittedly enjoyed writing was My Family and Other Animals. It is not surprising, given that absolutely all members of the Durrell family remembered Corfu with constant tenderness. Nostalgia is a quintessentially English dish after all.

27. Even when reading Darrell's first books, one gets the feeling that the story is told from the perspective of an experienced professional animal catcher. His confidence, his knowledge of wild fauna, his judgment, all this betrays a highly experienced man who has devoted his entire life to capturing wild animals in the most distant and terrible corners of the globe. Meanwhile, at the time of writing these books, Jareld was only slightly over twenty, and all his experience consisted of three expeditions, each of which lasted about six months.

28. Several times the young animal catcher had to be on the verge of death. Not as often as it happens with characters in adventure novels, but still much more often than the average British gentleman. Once, due to his own recklessness, he managed to plunge into a pit infested with poisonous snakes. He himself considered it incredible luck that he managed to get out of it alive. Another time, the snake tooth still overtook its victim. Being sure that he was dealing with a non-venomous snake, Darrell became careless and almost passed into another world. The only thing that saved me was that the doctor miraculously had the necessary serum. Several more times he had to suffer from not the most pleasant diseases - sand fever, malaria, jaundice...

29. Despite the image of a lean and energetic animal catcher, in everyday life Gerald behaved like a true homebody. He hated physical exertion and could easily sit in a chair all day.

30. By the way, all three expeditions were equipped personally by Gerald himself, and the inheritance from his father, which he received upon reaching adulthood, was used to finance them. These expeditions gave him considerable experience, but from a financial point of view they turned into a complete collapse, without even recouping the funds spent.

31. Initially, Gerald Durrell did not treat the indigenous population of the British colonies very politely. He considered it possible to order them, to drive them as he pleased, and generally did not put them on the same level as a British gentleman. However, this attitude towards representatives of the Third World quickly changed. Having lived in the company of black people continuously for several months, Gerald began to treat them quite humanly and even with obvious sympathy. It’s a paradox, later his books were criticized more than once precisely because of the “national factor.” At that time, Britain was entering a period of post-colonial repentance, and it was no longer considered politically correct to display unsightly, funny-speaking, and simple-minded savages on the pages of text.

32. Yes, despite the flurry of positive criticism, worldwide fame and millions of copies, Durrell's books were often criticized. And sometimes - on the part of lovers not of colorful people, but of the most animal lovers. It was at that time that “Greenpeace” and neo-ecological movements arose and took shape, the paradigm of which assumed a complete “hands off nature”, and zoos were often viewed as concentration camps for animals. Darrell suffered a lot of bloodshed while he was proving that zoos help preserve endangered species of fauna and achieve their stable reproduction.

33. There were also pages in Gerald Durrell's biography that he, apparently, would have willingly burned himself. For example, once in South America he tried to catch a baby hippopotamus. This occupation is difficult and dangerous, since they do not walk alone, and the parents of the hippopotamus, when they see their offspring being caught, become extremely dangerous and angry. The only way out was to kill two adult hippopotamuses, so that later they could catch their baby without interference. Reluctantly, Darrell agreed to this, he really needed “big animals” for zoos. The case ended unsuccessfully for all those involved. Having killed the female hippopotamus and driven away the male, Darrell discovered that the captured baby had just been swallowed by a hungry alligator. Finita. This incident left a serious imprint on him. Firstly, Darrell was silent during this episode without inserting any of his text. Secondly, from that moment on, he, who had previously hunted with interest and was a good shooter, completely stopped destroying fauna with his own hands.

34. Many noted the extraordinary similarity between the two Darrells - Lawrence (Larry) and Gerald (Jerry). They were even similar in appearance, both were short, thick-set, with an extremely winning disposition, ironic, a little bilious, both excellent storytellers, both writers, both could not stand England. The third brother, Leslie, was also very similar to them in terms of appearance, but in other respects...

Larry, Jackie, Gerald, Chumlee

35. By the way, the older brother, now considered a classic of English literature of the twentieth century in a more “serious” genre, came to popular recognition a little later than the younger one, despite the fact that he began to practice on the literary front much earlier, and, accordingly, to publish too.

36. In 1957, when the Queen herself presented Lawrence Durrell with an award for Bitter Lemons, his mother was unable to attend this highly solemn event. she had nothing to wear and, besides, she had to look after the chimpanzees».

Gerald, mom, Margot, Larry.

37. I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that Gerald Durrell was a ladies’ man or, to be completely honest, a womanizer. Since his youth, he had honed his manner of dealing with women and was recognized by many as extremely attractive. However, as for me, his manner of flirting was not distinguished by its frivolity; quite the contrary, it often consisted of frivolous hints and vulgar jokes. And even twenty years later, the director who filmed Darrell for a series of programs noted: “ His jokes were so salty that they could not be aired even at the latest time».

38. The story of marrying Jackie (Jacqueline) was also not easy. Gerald, who always preferred well-built blondes, suddenly changed his taste when he one day met the hotel owner’s daughter, young and dark-haired Jackie. Their romance developed in a very unusual way, since Jackie initially developed the most sincere antipathy for the young (at that time) trapper. Natural charm over time helped Darrell gain her consent to marriage. But even this did not work for her father - having married against her father’s will, Jackie never saw him again. By the way, sometimes there is a latent feeling that in terms of the number of cockroaches in her head, she could give odds to her husband’s entomological collection. “I decided never to have children - the life of an ordinary housewife is not for me.”

Jackie Darrell

39. However, everything was not very clear about the children of Gerald Darrell and his wife. He himself did not strive to have children and, again, according to his wife, in some ways was a true childfree. On the other hand, Jackie was pregnant twice and twice her pregnancies unfortunately ended in miscarriage. By the way, due to their poor financial condition, Gerald and Jackie lived for a long time in the same boarding house of sister Margot.

Gerald and Jackie Darrell.

40. Darrell also had ill-wishers from among his colleagues. Many recognized zoologists, including academically educated gentlemen, were extremely jealous of the successes of his expeditions - the impudent boy managed, by pure luck, as they believed, to take possession of extremely rare and valuable specimens of fauna. So it should not be surprising that the amount of venom poured on Darrell in scientific publications and newspapers periodically exceeded the amount of venom contained in all African snakes combined if someone squeezed them dry. He was blamed for his complete lack of specialized education, for his barbaric methods, for his lack of theoretical knowledge, for his arrogance and self-confidence, etc. One of Durrell's most influential and authoritative opponents was George Cansdale, director of the London Zoo. However, he always had a thousand times more fans.

41. Another sad note. The chimpanzee Chumley, who became Darrell's favorite and was brought by him to an English zoo, did not live long on Pudding Island. After a few years, imprisonment began to weigh heavily on him and he escaped twice, and at times his temper completely deteriorated. After the second time, when he began to rampage on the street, breaking into locked cars, zoo workers were forced to shoot the monkey, considering it dangerous to people. By the way, the director of the zoo himself ordered this to be done, yes, that same George Cansdale, who devoted a lot of energy to devastating criticism of Darrell and was considered his sworn enemy.

Since you don’t want to fill the post entirely with photographs, you can look at the very interesting collection “From the life of the Durrells in their natural habitat” -

Gerald Durrell (1925–1995) in the Askania-Nova nature reserve, USSR 1985

as if he were covering up a piece of his life or deliberately focusing the reader’s attention on other things. I wasn’t a lawyer then, but for some reason I felt that something was wrong here.

family from journalists. No. I just thought it was interesting to find all those tiny innuendos and suggestive signs that I caught as a child.

solemnly display them to the public. Botting writes about a person, balancedly, carefully, leaving nothing out. This is by no means a dirty laundry hunter, quite the opposite. Sometimes he is even shyly laconic in those parts of Darrell’s biography that would be enough for newspapers to write a couple of hundred catchy headlines.

nice British family. Here I post only those facts that, while reading, surprised me, amazed me, or seemed interesting. Simply put, individual and small details of Darrell's life, the understanding of which, it seems to me, will allow us to take a more careful look at his life and read the books in a new way.

I'll break the post into three parts to fit it in. In addition, all the facts will be neatly divided into chapters - in accordance with the milestones of Darrell's life.

The first chapter will be the shortest, as it tells about Darrell's early childhood and his life in India.

And he himself almost lost consciousness at the mere mention of school.

were practically unanimous and tirelessly confirmed their position with practice. Mother and Margot subsequently settled firmly in France, followed by the adult Gerald. Leslie settled down in Kenya. As for Larry, he was constantly traveling all over the world, and he visited England on short visits, and with obvious displeasure. However, I have already gotten ahead of myself.

According to the recollections of acquaintances and eyewitnesses, Mrs. Darrell went to bed exclusively in the company of a bottle of gin, but in the preparation of homemade wines she outshone everyone and everything. However, looking ahead again, love for

alcoholism seems to have been passed on to all members of this family, albeit unevenly.

Pictures of the cloudless existence of the Durrell family in the pristine Greek paradise were emerging. I can’t say that Darrell seriously embellished reality, glossed over some shameful details or something like that, but discrepancies with reality in some places may surprise the reader.

It should, however, be taken into account that Darrell began writing the book at the age of thirty-one, and in Corfu he was ten, so many details of his childhood could easily be lost in memory or acquired imaginary details.

Other books are much more prone to fiction, being more of a fusion of fiction and non-fiction. Thus, the second book (“Birds, Beasts and Relatives”) includes a large number

fictional stories, Darrell later even regretted the inclusion of some of them. Well, the third (“Garden of the Gods”) is actually a work of art with your favorite characters.

Corfu: Margot, Nancy, Larry, Jerry, mom.

Larry Darrell

Nancy would hardly have made a supporting figure like Theodore or Spiro; after all, she was not a servant, but she didn’t want to be associated with the family either. In addition, at the time of publication of the book (1956), Larry and Nancy’s marriage had broken up, so there was even less desire to remember the old things. So, just in case, the author completely lost his brother’s wife between the lines. It was as if she was not in Corfu at all.

Larry and his wife Nancy, 1934

Theodore Stephanides

Spiro and Jerry

Leslie Darrell.

Margo Durrell

29. Despite the image of a lean and energetic animal catcher, in everyday life Gerald behaved like a true homebody. He hated physical exertion and could easily sit in a chair all day.

In the spring of 1935, a small British family, consisting of a widowed mother and three children no older than twenty, arrived in Corfu for an extended visit. A month earlier, the fourth son arrived there, who was over twenty - and besides, he was married; At first they all stopped in Perama. The mother and her younger offspring settled in the house, which later became known as the Strawberry-Pink Villa, and the eldest son and his wife first settled in the house of a fisherman neighbor.

This, of course, was the Durrell family. The rest, as they say, belongs to history.

Is it so?

Is not a fact. In the years since then, many words have been written about the Durrells and the five years they spent in Corfu, from 1935 to 1939, most of them by the Durrells themselves. And yet, there are still many unanswered questions regarding this period of their lives, and the main one is what exactly happened during these years?

I was able to ask this question to Gerald Durrell himself in the 70s, when I took a group of schoolchildren to Durrell Zoo in Jersey during a trip to the Channel Islands.

Gerald treated us all with extraordinary kindness. But he refused to answer questions about Corfu unless I promised to return next year with another group of schoolchildren. I promised. And then he very frankly answered all the questions that I asked him.

At that time, I considered this a confidential conversation, so much of what was said was never retold. But I still used the main milestones of his story - to seek explanations from others. The detailed picture I was thus able to piece together was shared with Douglas Botting, who then wrote the authorized biography of Gerald Durrell, and with Hilary Pipety when she wrote her guidebook, In the Footsteps of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell in Corfu, 1935-1939.

Now, however, everything has changed. Namely, all members of this family died long ago. Mr Durrell died in India in 1928, Mrs Durrell in England in 1965, Leslie Durrell in England in 1981, Lawrence Durrell in France in 1990, Gerald Durrell in Jersey in 1995, and Finally, Margot Durrell died in England in 2006.

They all left children except Gerald; but the reason why it was impossible to report the details of that long-ago conversation died with Margot.

What needs to be said now?

I think some important questions about the Durrells in Corfu that are still heard from time to time need to be answered. Below I try to answer them - as truthfully as possible. What I am presenting was, for the most part, told to me personally by Darrell.

1. Is Gerald's book “My Family and Other Animals” more of fiction or more of non-fiction?

Documentary. All the characters mentioned in it are real people, and all of them are carefully described by Gerald. The same goes for animals. And all the cases described in the book are facts, although not always presented in chronological order, but Gerald himself warns about this in the preface to the book. The dialogue also accurately reproduces the manner in which the Durrells communicated with each other.

The White House in Kalami on the island of Corfu, where Lawrence Durrell lived

2. If this is so, then why is Lawrence living with his family in the book, when in fact he was married and living separately in Kalami? And why is there no mention of his wife Nancy Durrell in the book?

Because in fact, Lawrence and Nancy spent most of their time in Corfu with the Durrell family, and not at the White House in Kalami - this dates back to the period when Mrs. Durrell rented the huge Yellow and Snow White villas (that is, from September 1935 to August 1937 and from September 1937 until leaving Corfu. They rented the strawberry-pink villa for the first time, and it lasted less than six months).

In fact, the Durrells were always a very close-knit family, and Mrs. Durrell was the center of family life during these years. Both Leslie and Margot also lived separately in Corfu for a time after they turned twenty, but wherever they settled in Corfu during these years (the same goes for Leslie and Nancy), Mrs. Durrell's villas were always among those places.

However, it should be noted that Nancy Durrell never truly became a member of the family, and she and Lawrence separated forever - shortly after leaving Corfu.

3. “My Family and Other Animals” is a more or less truthful account of the events of that time. What about Gerald's other books about Corfu?

Over the years, more fiction has been added. In his second book about Corfu, Birds, Beasts and Kinsmen, Gerald told some of his best tales about his time in Corfu, and most of these tales are true, although not all. Some of the stories were pretty stupid, so much so that he later regretted including them in the book.

Many of the events described in the third book, Garden of the Gods, are also fictitious. In short, life in Corfu is described most fully and in detail in the first book. The second included some stories that were not included in the first, but there weren’t enough for a whole book, so I had to fill in the gaps with fiction. And the third book and the collection of stories that followed it, although they contained some portion of real events, are mainly literature.

4. Were all the facts about this period of the family's life included in Gerald's books and stories about Corfu, or was something deliberately omitted?

Some things were deliberately left out. And even more than intentionally. Towards the end, Gerald grew increasingly out of his mother's control and lived for some time with Lawrence and Nancy in Kalami. For a number of reasons, he never mentioned this period. But it was at this time that Gerald could rightfully be called a “child of nature.”

So, if childhood is indeed, as they say, “a writer’s bank account,” then it was in Corfu that both Gerald and Lawrence more than replenished it with the experiences later reflected in their books.