Stories from a Corfu Childhood

A Selection of His Own Stories Written and Read by Gerald Durrell

By: Gerald Durrell

Narrated by: Gerald Durrell

These five stories, written and read by Gerald Durrell himself, are taken from his books Birds, Beasts and Relatives and Fillets of Plaice. They were recorded on Jersey in 1985 and are used by kind permission of the Estate of Gerald Durrell.

©2012 Crimson Cats Audio Books/Gerald Durrell Estate (P)2012 Crimson Cats Audio Books

Absolutely brilliant! A laugh-out-loud treasure.

Gerald Durrell was a gifted writer, and it turns out he was a gifted reader as well. As he narrated his alternately gorgeous and hilarious prose in his extremely posh accent, I fell about laughing at the genius dialogue, the depiction of witty and irascible elder brother Larry (author Lawrence Durrell as a very young man), long-suffering Mother, querulous sister Margo, pugnacious brother Leslie, and the eccentric friends who were familiar to me from reading the books many times since childhood. This recording is a treasure, and I only wish Gerald Durrell had recorded all of his books about his childhood in Corfu in the 1930s, his batty British family, and the colorfully inimitable characters, fascinating animals and dreamlike landscapes of a paradisical Greek island.

Delightful

I first fell in love with the Corfus when I saw the Netflix, or maybe it was Amazon series. Since then I ordered this little ditty in both Audible and also in a little hard book version. I purchased the book so my grandchildren would be able to read, or have it read to them someday.

In the author’s voice

Listening to the author read his stories from one of my favourite books, is very special, as accents and intonations are as he intends them to be. No matter how many times I read or listen to these stories, they are delightful and always make me laugh. The rich array of characters and their idiosyncrasies run amok thru the Durrell’s lives, and one grows quite fond of them, as of one’s own family. If you’ve not read any of this author’s books, or are familiar with this and the other tales, this is a book to bring a smile and more to your face.

Offbeat British historical comedy

I saw this story on BBC and wanted to learn more about the family of Brits . The book is narrated by the youngest son . Very entertaining!

Superb

An all-time family favourite... Such a keeper! ! Best of all it's narrated by the inimitable author