Gerald Durrell
British
1925 – 1995
Gerald Malcolm Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British India, and moved to England when his father died in 1928. In 1935 the family moved to Corfu, and stayed there for four years, before the outbreak of World War II forced them to return to the UK. In 1946 he received an inheritance from his father's will that he used to fund animal-collecting trips to the British Cameroons and British Guiana. He married Jacquie Rasen in 1951; they had very little money, and she persuaded him to write an account of his first trip to the Cameroons. The result, titled The Overloaded Ark, sold well, and he began writing accounts of his other trips. An expedition to Argentina and Paraguay followed in 1953, and three years later he published My Family and Other Animals, which became a bestseller.
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed 2 of Gerald Durrell's books, including Birds, Beasts and Relatives and My Family and Other Animals.
2
Books ReviewedGerald Durrell books in order
29 books, 2 series; 2 reviewed on LuvemBooks. Dates and covers from Amazon.
Zoo Memoirs3 books
Corfu3 books
#12004Our review →
#21969Our review →
#32011The Garden of the GodsAmazon ↗
Standalones and other books
1954The Bafut BeaglesAmazon ↗
1956The Drunken ForestAmazon ↗
1963Encounters With AnimalsAmazon ↗
1968Rosy Is My RelativeAmazon ↗
1971My Favourite Animal StoriesAmazon ↗
1972Catch Me a ColobusAmazon ↗
1977Golden Bats & Pink PigeonsAmazon ↗
1979Fauna and FamilyAmazon ↗
1980The Picnic and Other Inimitable StoriesAmazon ↗
1981The Picnic and Suchlike PandemoniumAmazon ↗
1983The Amateur NaturalistAmazon ↗
1984How to Shoot an Amateur NaturalistAmazon ↗
1986Durrell in RussiaAmazon ↗
1987The Fantastic Flying JourneyAmazon ↗
1990The Fantastic Dinosaur AdventureAmazon ↗
1990KeeperAmazon ↗
1991Toby the TortoiseAmazon ↗
1993The Aye-aye and IAmazon ↗
2008Fillets of PlaiceAmazon ↗
2009Three Singles to AdventureAmazon ↗
2014Marrying Off Mother: And Other StoriesAmazon ↗
2016Beasts in My BelfryAmazon ↗
2024Myself and Other AnimalsAmazon ↗
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
4.6/5
reader rating · 1,817 ratingsThe second volume of Gerald Durrell's beloved Corfu Trilogy deepens the naturalist memoir begun in My Family and Other Animals, following the young Gerald and his wonderfully chaotic family through further adventures on the Greek island — blending sharp comic observation, rich portraits of wildlife, and an abiding love for a landscape that shaped one of the twentieth century's great conservationists.
Reviewed Sep 10, 2026
My Family and Other Animals
4.5/5
reader rating · 8,744 ratingsFirst published in 1956, My Family and Other Animals is Gerald Durrell's autobiographical account of the years he spent as a child on the Greek island of Corfu with his gloriously dysfunctional family — and it remains the gold standard of warmly comic nature writing, opening the first book of what became the beloved Corfu Trilogy.
Reviewed Mar 21, 2026
Ask LuvemBooks about Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell is remembered for turning his chaotic childhood on Corfu into warmly comic nature writing, and the 2 books we've reviewed show why: My Family and Other Animals opens his autobiographical account of growing up among a gloriously dysfunctional family and the island's wildlife, while Birds, Beasts and Relatives deepens that memoir with further adventures, sharp comic observation and rich portraits of the landscape's animals. Both carry strong reader ratings (Amazon aggregates of 4.5/5 and 4.6/5), reflecting how durably loved his blend of memoir and natural history remains.
- Where should I start?
- Start with My Family and Other Animals. It opens Durrell's autobiographical account of his Corfu childhood and introduces the family and the island that the follow-up, Birds, Beasts and Relatives, builds on — so reading it first gives you the full comic setup. It's also his most widely read book, with a reader rating of 4.5/5 from 8,744 Amazon ratings.
- What's their writing style?
- Durrell writes warmly comic autobiography where natural history and family farce sit side by side. Across the 2 books we've reviewed, the signature is sharp comic observation of his chaotic family paired with rich, affectionate portraits of Corfu's wildlife and landscape — the young Gerald is as absorbed by the island's creatures as by the humans around him. The result is nature writing with a humorist's timing, and an abiding love for the place that shaped him as a conservationist.
- Books we've reviewed
- We've reviewed 2 Gerald Durrell books, both memoirs of his Corfu childhood. My Family and Other Animals (reader rating 4.5/5 from 8,744 Amazon ratings) is his autobiographical account of growing up on the island with his gloriously dysfunctional family. Birds, Beasts and Relatives (reader rating 4.6/5 from 1,817 Amazon ratings) continues the story with further adventures, blending comic family observation with wildlife portraits.
- How do their books compare?
- Both reviewed books are Corfu memoirs, but they sit at different points in the story. My Family and Other Animals opens Durrell's autobiographical account of his childhood on the island and introduces the family, while Birds, Beasts and Relatives deepens that memoir with further adventures and an even richer focus on wildlife and landscape. Reader ratings are nearly identical — 4.5/5 versus 4.6/5 (Amazon aggregates) — so the choice is really about starting at the beginning.
- What genre do they write?
- Based on the books we've reviewed, Durrell writes memoir and autobiography — specifically naturalist memoir. My Family and Other Animals is shelved as Biography & Memoir, and Birds, Beasts and Relatives as Memoir. Both fuse his life story with nature writing: his boyhood on Corfu told through family comedy and close observation of the island's wildlife.
- What should I read after My Family and Other Animals?
- The natural next step is Birds, Beasts and Relatives, the second volume of the Corfu Trilogy. It follows young Gerald and his family through further adventures on the island, carrying on the same blend of sharp comic observation and wildlife portraiture. Readers rate it 4.6/5 on Amazon, so the quality holds up past the first book.
Who is Gerald Durrell?
Where should I start?
What's their writing style?
Books we've reviewed
How do their books compare?
What genre do they write?
What should I read after My Family and Other Animals?
Who is Gerald Durrell?
Gerald Malcolm Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist and television presenter. On LuvemBooks he's represented by 2 reviewed books, both drawn from the years he spent as a child on the Greek island of Corfu with his family — the experience that shaped his life's work with animals. He's best known for My Family and Other Animals, his autobiographical account of those Corfu years, which holds a reader rating of 4.5/5 from 8,744 Amazon ratings.
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Authors Like Gerald Durrell
Richard Louis Proenneke
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Richard Louis Proenneke’s One Man's Wilderness shares Durrell's patient, wonder-filled observation of wild creatures, trading family comedy for a stripped-back nature memoir.
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Sam Keith
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Sam Keith's One Man's Wilderness offers the same love of wild places and close animal observation, trading family comedy for a stripped-back nature memoir.
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Jeannette Walls
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Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle shares the eccentric, charismatic family dynamics of Durrell's memoirs, bringing higher emotional stakes and narrative drive to the story.
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Louis L'Amour
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Louis L'Amour's memoir Education of a Wandering Man offers another restless, widely observant perspective shaped by direct encounters with the world rather than institutions.
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R
Rachel Friedman
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Rachel Friedman’s The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost captures a young narrator discovering herself abroad, sharing the coming-of-age energy and vivid foreign landscapes of Durrell’s memoirs.
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Michael Neiman
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Michael Neiman's Hello My Name is Sharkbait pairs a love of the natural world with self-deprecating humor, chronicling his 2,190-mile thru-hike along the Appalachian Trail.
1 book reviewed