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Often Bought
In the Durrell Spot shop, in Corfu town, you will find for sale 2 small books. My Family and Other Animals (the first book in The Corfu Trilogy) by Gerald Durrell and Prospero’s Cell by Lawrence Durrell. These 2 books have never been out of print in the 70 odd years since they were first published and have formed the basis for TV adaptations such as the recent ITV production “The Durrells”. It is strange that the lives of an English family, on an extended stay in Corfu during the 1930’s, should still maintain such a grip on the public imagination, 90 years after the event.
Why is it that the events and landscapes evoked by Gerald Durrell, as well as the lyrical descriptions of his brother Lawrence, are so enduring and enchanting?There are two key reasons for this enduring popularity. The first is a nostalgia for a “lost golden age” – an age that predates the rapid and overwhelming changes of our current societies. A time before technology invaded our lives with cars and TV and mobile phones; a simpler, maybe more truthful time. Secondly, it is the attraction of a world seen through the filter of another’s eyes. In the case of Gerry, these are a child’s eyes, attuned to newness and wonder. Moving to Corfu for Gerry was like being reborn. Even in Larry’s writing in Prospero’s Cell this simpler, youthful view is to an extent true; we are encouraged to view Corfu through the hopeful, glittering eyes of the young poet in love. To share and experience the shock and delight of the new, as both Larry and Gerry saw them, is what grips us and enchants us in the retelling of their stories. It feeds our desire for escape into the lives of this eccentric family, on an island of wonder.Both writers cleverly exploited this desire to escape by painting word pictures that draw us into the magical landscapes of a sun-drenched Greek island, populated with characters that are realistic and recognisable but also undeniably larger than life. Gerry writes often of colour – he is hugely cinematic, projecting vignettes of life in 1930’s Corfu onto our imagination. Gerald recognised this image-making effect of the island on his own brain too. In My Family and Other Animals, he writes:“I found myself prey to the most curious sensation of unreality. It was rather like being born for the first time. In that brilliant, brittle light, I could appreciate the true huntsman’s-red of a lady-bird’s wing case, the magnificent chocolate and amber of an earwig, and the deep shining agate of the ants.” Who among us could fail to be captivated by this description and indeed, who could fail to desire to experience this awakening of the senses for themselves? This is why many of us come back to the writings of Gerry Durrell again and again; the confirmation that to see as a child is to see with wonder.
