My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Audiobook read by Gerald Harper. Abridged
My Family and Other Animals was published in 1956 and tells of the experiences of a ten-year-old nature enthusiast, i.e., the author himself, as his family leave dreary weather England in 1935 and move to the small Greek island of Corfu. While the story has some exaggeration and embellishment, it is primarily based on young Gerald’s real experiences. Besides audiobook versions, My Family and Other Animals was made into a 10-episode miniseries in 1987 and 2005 film which you can watch on RU-vid. Finally, there is a 26-episode series titled The Durrell’s of Corfu which has gotten very good ratings on IMDB and Amazon. It’s currently free on Prime and for a fee on other sites.
Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) was born in India about 370 miles west of Bangladesh. His fascination with nature began in his youth and led to him to write 40 books on the subject. His books have been translated into 30 languages. The royalties helped Mr. Durrell start Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust that has helped protect 435,000 hectares of vital wilderness, save 14 endangered species, and trained 5500 conservationists from 142 countries (Wow). He also founded the Durrell Wildlife Park in 1959, now called Jersey Zoo. It’s located on the English Channel Island of Jersey for which New Jersey is named. Mr. Durrell wanted the zoo to be used for protection and breeding of endangered species. If anyone has visited Jersey Zoo, let us know how you liked it.
Gerald Harper (1929 - all in good time ) is a retired English actor who has primarily performed on stage and British television. He has had small roles on film including the excellent A Night to Remember about the Titanic. A number of his early performances for BBC television have been lost. For example, the 1959 series Skyport, which MS Word thinks I’m misspelling, has only 1 of its 52 episodes remaining. The episode is on RU-vid. An intriguing, from its description, 6-episode series from 1964 titled The Sleeper seems to be gone for good. However, you can watch Mr. Harper on RU-vid in the role he’s most famous for playing, the titular gentleman detective in Adam Adamant Lives. The main character was frozen by his enemy in 1902 and thawed out in 1966, much to his confusion. An interesting side note is that Mr. Harper hosted a radio show called Gerald Harper’s Sunday Affair in the 1970s where he’d play favorite songs and give away champagne and chocolates. You can find an episode on mixcloud by searching the title. Cheers!
BTW if anyone has any animals encountered in nature stories, let us know!
20 сен 2022
