The Durrell family are immortalised in Gerald Durrell's My Family & Other Animals & its ITV adaptation The Durrells But what of the real life Durrells? Why did they go to Corfu in the first place
- & what happened to them after they left? The real story of the Durrells is as surprising & fascinating as anything in Gerry's books & Michael Haag with his first hand knowledge of the family is the ideal narrator drawing on diaries letters & unpublished autobiographical fragments The Durrells of Corfu describes the family's upbringing in India & the crisis that brought them to England & then Greece It recalls the genuine characters they encountered on Corfu
- Theodore the biologist the taxi driver Spiro Halikiopoulos & the prisoner Kosti
- as well as the visit of American writer Henry Miller & Haag has unearthed the story of how the Durrells left Corfu including Margo's & Larry's last-minute escapes before the War An extended epilogue looks at the emergence of Larry as a world famous novelist & Gerry as a naturalist & champion of endangered species as well as the lives of the rest of the family their friends & other animals The book is illustrated with family photos from the Gerald Durrell Archive many of them reproduced here for the first time