The biography of Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) - zoologist, naturalist, writer - was filled with various travels to isolated and remote corners of the globe.
Childhood and youth
Jerry was the fourth and youngest child of an English civil engineer working in India. When his father died and Jerry was three years old, the whole family, headed by their delicate mother Louise Florence Durrell, returned to their homeland. They lived in the resort town of Bournemouth, a hundred kilometers from London. Compared to hot India, it was, of course, uncomfortable here: even in summer it rained and was cold. At the insistence of his eldest brother Lawrence (Larry), in 1935 the whole family moved to Greece to the island of Corfu, which is now called Kerkyra.
On a Greek island
Life on it, like heaven, will fly by in an instant. Gerald Durrell's biography will be filled with friendly communication with Greek peasants, Dr. Theodore Stefanidis (1896-1983), extraordinary teachers French and daily walks with my beloved and faithful dog Roger. This is what ten-year-old Jerry looked like.
By the age of ten, Jerry had still not mastered English. While keeping a diary, he managed to make at least two mistakes in every word. The only thing he was never wrong about was writing the names of animals and insects. This was discovered by Larry, who by this time had become a professional writer and wrote three novels in Corfu. They were published in the same years. The Durrell house was cheerful and noisy. Picnics and parties were held there at the slightest occasion, and often without it at all. Darrell will describe this wonderful life in the book “My Family and Animals.” And the BBC channel will make a charming multi-part film that will convey the atmosphere of the book and their lives.
The photo above is a still from this film.
The war and the first years after it
The biography of Gerald Durrell, like everyone else, will be broken by the Second World War. I had to leave the wonderful island. Here is a still from the film that perfectly shows what the Durrell family looked like back then.
At the age of 14, immediately after returning to Britain, the teenager went to work in a shop. Of course, the zoological one, which was called “Aquarium”. When the war ended, Jerry began working at the zoo. He didn't have higher education, and therefore the position was the most modest. But he learned how to handle a wide variety of animals and began compiling lists of rare endangered animal species. He was the first to sound the alarm about them, although for now just for himself.
First expeditions
Having received an inheritance in 1947, the young man leaves for Africa. Gerald Durrell's biography is enriched by experiences and meetings in Cameroon and Guyana. But he is a bad financier. All the money is spent, and he finds himself penniless. On the advice of his older brother, he sits down at a typewriter. This does not please him, since he is not good with grammar and syntax. But the first story, “The Hunt for the Hairy Frog,” which Gerald gave to BBC radio, was a success. He was even invited to the studio. Further more. Darrell continues to write because literary works he can earn money for a new trip.
Gerald Durrell: biography, personal life
Gerald Durrell's life takes on new experiences. In 1951 he married Jackie (Jacqueline) Wolfenden. Since the candidate husband has no money, the bride’s father categorically objects to this marriage. The girl has to run away from home and marry her beloved against the will of her parents. They will live for free in the boarding house run by Jerry's sister Margaret. Their marriage would last until 1979. During these years, many books will be written and many expeditions will be organized. Darrell will dedicate the book “Under the Forest Canopy” to his faithful friend. However, everyday difficulties, Gerald’s passion only for work, as well as alcohol, will lead them to divorce after 28 years of marriage.
In 1977, Gerald Durrell, whose biography has always been unpredictable, meets a young woman at Carolina University who enthusiastically studies the behavior of lemurs. She was 28 years old at the time, Darrell was 52. He was stunned - beautiful woman is interested in zoology. Darrell was at first simply interested in Lee. And then I got carried away and asked to marry him. Lee McGeorge Wilson also did not immediately have any special feelings for the middle-aged zoologist. But after he left for India, they began to correspond, interest grew into friendship and love. Now they've teamed up, Lee and Gerald Durrell's biography. The photo shows the beginning of their life together.
The wife accompanied her restless husband on the last three expeditions. In 1982 - to the island of Mauritius, in 1986 - to Russia and in 1990 - to Madagascar. So they remained a loving couple until Darrell’s last days.
Life and work
But let's continue about the restless zoologist and writer. Gerald Durrell short biography which this shows, never stayed in one place for a long time. In 1954, he was already in Paraguay, but due to the coup in the country collected collection the animals could not be transported to the zoo. In 1955, Darrell came to his brother Lawrence in Corfu, and there the most popular book about childhood was born, which was published in millions of copies around the world. It has already been said that a film was made based on it in England. Here's another shot from it, showing the traveling zoo. In 1959, Darrell created a zoo on the island of Jersey, where rare animals have been protected since 1963.
He sought to have them breed in captivity and then be sent back to their natural habitats. If not for Darrell’s activities, many rare species would have disappeared forever. In 1985, Darrell came to the USSR and filmed a serial film. In total, during his life, the zoologist made thirty-five films and wrote more than thirty books.
In 1995, three weeks after he turned 70, Gerald Durrell died. Lee's wife continued his work, worked at the zoo, and wrote books about animals.
Gerald Durrell: biography for children
This will be a story about the activities of a passionate person who uttered his first word in India, since he was born there, and it was not “mother”, but “zoo”. From the age of two, everything was clear to him - he would become a naturalist-zoologist.
And by the age of ten, when he spent four years in Greece, he wandered through the olive groves and vineyards of the island of Corfu and watched how, for example, turtles reproduced, or carefully watched the life of geckos, collected scorpions in matchboxes, to the horror of his older brother, he I already knew exactly my path in life. He brought home some animals from every walk around the island. So, he could throw harmless but huge snakes into the bath, which everyone in the house mistook for terrible snakes. One mother completely understood his passion for animals. His older brothers and sister were still afraid of his animals, insects and birds. In his native Britain, a fun and entertaining film was made about his childhood in Corfu, based on Durrell's book My Family and the Beasts.
He did not receive a systematic education and even wrote with errors, but nevertheless Darrell studied all his life. He was a passionate and gifted person. He created a zoo in which he bred rare animals. He made almost forty films about them in the wild and in national reserves around the world, and wrote more than thirty books about his travels around the world. Darrell came to our country and made a film consisting of 13 episodes and wrote the book “Darrell in Russia.” He founded the Wildlife Conservation Foundation. All his activities were filled with love for people and animals who must be protected and protected.
There are writers whom you read once and you don't want to return to their books. The books can be good, but they don’t grab you, that’s all.
There are writers who arouse your interest at certain moments or periods of your life. For example, children's writers. Or writers whose books you read during illness.
And there are writers who, having once entered your life, always accompany you and turn out to be equally interesting in joy and sorrow, in health and in illness, in childhood and in later life.
This is what happened to me with Gerald Durrell.
The first time I read his book “Catch Me a Colobus” was around the age of seven. She charmed me. I re-read it and asked my parents to find new stories by this author. Then I read “My Family and Other Animals”, “The Zoo in My Luggage”, “The Menagerie Estate”, “Under the Canopy of the Drunken Forest”, “The Hounds of Bafut”, and many, many others. Then there were BBC series with Darrell, where he talked about various animals with love and knowledge of his craft.
I read and reread Darrell's books. I had them everywhere. On the work/study desk. In the kitchen. In the living room on the sofa. On the balcony. In the garden. In, sorry, the toilet. In the bag. They were read to the gills. With worn pages. With the roots torn off. With a worn binding. With stains on the pages. No books in our house were read as intensively and universally as Darrell's books.
Their heroes became my good friends. I was worried about their fate. What happened to Spiro Hakiaopoulos? And with Countess Mavrodaki? Where did Captain Creech go? What happened to the "Hounds of Bafut"? Was Darrell in touch with Von Bafut's successor? Where did the Angwantibo baby go and what is his future fate? And Roger, Vyun, Pachkun, a puppy named Laz, Magpie, the owls Ulysses and Lampadusa?
I admired the Durrell family. Loving, devoted people to each other. The wise, magnificent mother you can only dream of. Brothers Larry and Less, ready to stand up for each other. A little eccentric, romantic and amorous, but caring and devoted sister Margot. And finally, Jerry himself is a beloved, pampered younger brother and son.
I wished my mom was as understanding and “cool” as Lou Darrell. So that my brother would be as carefree as Less and participate in all my pranks, and as serious and without complexes as Larry. It's not that my family were bad - not at all. But my mother would hardly allow me to bring 11 puppies into the house, get an owl and feed her the entire supply of chops in the house. My brother would hardly talk to me about sex, and even so openly, like Larry Darrell.
The Darrell family seemed ideal to me, the relationship was surprisingly warm, and they themselves were role models for me in their attitude to life, with each other, with the people around them.
And recently I came across a biography of Durrell written by Botling. Yesterday I finished reading it.
Now I have the feeling that I was betrayed by my very old and close friend. That all these years he has been deceiving me.
If you are interested, read this biography and you will understand what I mean.
But the colors of Durrell's books have faded for me. :-(((
In the spring of 1935, a small British family, consisting of a widowed mother and three children no older than twenty, arrived in Corfu for an extended visit. A month earlier, the fourth son arrived there, who was over twenty - and besides, he was married; At first they all stopped in Perama. The mother and her younger offspring settled in the house, which later became known as the Strawberry-Pink Villa, and the eldest son and his wife initially settled in the house of a fisherman neighbor.
This, of course, was the Durrell family. The rest, as they say, belongs to history.
Is it so?
Is not a fact. In the years since then, many words have been written about the Durrells and the five years they spent in Corfu, from 1935 to 1939, most of them by the Durrells themselves. And yet, there are still many unanswered questions regarding this period of their lives, and the main one is what exactly happened during these years?
I was able to ask this question to Gerald Durrell himself in the 70s, when I took a group of schoolchildren to Durrell Zoo in Jersey during a trip to the Channel Islands.
Gerald treated us all with extraordinary kindness. But he refused to answer questions about Corfu unless I promised to return next year with another group of schoolchildren. I promised. And then he very frankly answered all the questions that I asked him.
At that time, I considered this a confidential conversation, so much of what was said was never retold. But I still used the main milestones of his story - to seek explanations from others. The detailed picture I was thus able to piece together was shared with Douglas Botting, who then wrote the authorized biography of Gerald Durrell, and with Hilary Pipety when she wrote her guidebook, In the Footsteps of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell in Corfu, 1935-1939.
Now, however, everything has changed. Namely, all members of this family died long ago. Mr Durrell died in India in 1928, Mrs Durrell in England in 1965, Leslie Durrell in England in 1981, Lawrence Durrell in France in 1990, Gerald Durrell in Jersey in 1995, and Finally, Margot Durrell died in England in 2006.
They all left children except Gerald; but the reason why it was impossible to report the details of that long-ago conversation died with Margot.
What now needs to be told?
I think some important questions about the Durrells in Corfu that are still heard from time to time need to be answered. Below I try to answer them - as truthfully as possible. What I am presenting was, for the most part, told to me personally by Darrell.
1. Is Gerald's book “My Family and Other Animals” more of fiction or more of non-fiction?
Documentary. All the characters mentioned in it are real people, and all of them are carefully described by Gerald. The same goes for animals. And all the cases described in the book are facts, although not always presented in chronological order, but Gerald himself warns about this in the preface to the book. The dialogue also accurately reproduces the manner in which the Durrells communicated with each other.
© Montse & Ferran ⁄ flickr.com
The White House in Kalami on the island of Corfu, where Lawrence Durrell lived
2. If this is so, then why is Lawrence living with his family in the book, when in fact he was married and living separately in Kalami? And why is there no mention of his wife Nancy Durrell in the book?
Because in fact, Lawrence and Nancy spent most of their time in Corfu with the Durrell family, and not at the White House in Kalami - this dates back to the period when Mrs. Durrell rented the huge Yellow and Snow White villas (that is, from September 1935 to August 1937 and from September 1937 until leaving Corfu they rented the strawberry-pink villa for the first time, and this lasted less than six months).
In fact, the Durrells were always a very close-knit family, and Mrs. Durrell was the center of family life during these years. Both Leslie and Margot also lived separately in Corfu for a time after they turned twenty, but wherever they settled in Corfu during these years (the same goes for Leslie and Nancy), Mrs. Durrell's villas were always among those places.
However, it should be noted that Nancy Durrell never truly became a member of the family, and she and Lawrence separated forever - shortly after leaving Corfu.
3. “My Family and Other Animals” is a more or less truthful account of the events of that time. What about Gerald's other books about Corfu?
Over the years, more fiction has been added. In his second book about Corfu, Birds, Beasts and Kinsmen, Gerald told some of his best tales about his time in Corfu, and most of these tales are true, although not all. Some of the stories were pretty stupid, so much so that he later regretted including them in the book.
Many of the events described in the third book, Garden of the Gods, are also fictitious. In short, life in Corfu is described most fully and in detail in the first book. The second included some stories that were not included in the first, but there weren’t enough for a whole book, so I had to fill in the gaps with fiction. And the third book and the collection of stories that followed it, although they contained some portion of real events, are mainly literature.
4. Were all the facts about this period of the family's life included in Gerald's books and stories about Corfu, or was something deliberately omitted?
Some things were deliberately left out. And even more than intentionally. Towards the end, Gerald grew increasingly out of his mother's control and lived for some time with Lawrence and Nancy in Kalami. For a number of reasons, he never mentioned this period. But it was at this time that Gerald could rightfully be called a “child of nature.”
So, if childhood is indeed, as they say, “a writer’s bank account,” then it was in Corfu that both Gerald and Lawrence more than replenished it with the experiences later reflected in their books.
BEASTS AND WOMEN OF GERALD DARELL.
Jackie waved the last page with a sweeping gesture and abruptly pushed the pile of papers aside. White sheets of paper fanned out across the table. She nervously lit a cigarette, but after taking a few puffs, she annoyedly crushed the cigarette in an ashtray full of equally long cigarette butts.
Damn it, she never expected that it would be so difficult for her to do this. In fact, why was she so worried? After all, they have been living apart for several years. She herself left Gerald and, as it seemed to her, did not regret it at all. Why did she suddenly feel this terrible, irresistible melancholy now? Why, when putting her signature on these stupid, virtually meaningless papers, does she feel almost physical pain?..
Mechanically kneading another unnecessary cigarette in her fingers, Jackie remembered how she left the island of Jersey in April 1976, full of irritation and frustration at her own ruined life. Another group of reporters, entangled in a network of cables, scurried around the zoo; the young manager, who had arrived just a few days ago, looked around hauntedly, trying to navigate the sea of problems, but she didn’t care at all. Not paying attention to the confusion that reigned around her, she threw things straight into the gaping, greedy maw of the old suitcase. The stubborn straps slipped out of her hands, but Jackie pressed her knee against the lid of the worn leather monster with renewed energy. Stupid, obliging memory, just like now, brought down unnecessary memories like a whirlwind...
Once upon a time, many years ago, Jackie Wolfenden, in the same haste and confusion, left the house of her father, the owner of a small hotel in Manchester. Sitting at the reception desk, she met a young zoologist named Darell, who had brought a batch of animals from Africa for the local zoo. With curiosity and some apprehension, Jackie watched as this slender, blue-eyed and always smiling blond man drove the young ballerinas who settled in the hotel crazy one after another. The girls cooed about “darling Gerald” from morning to night, admiring in every way his article, magical smile and tropical tan. It cannot be said that Jackie doubted her own mental fortitude, but she did not at all want anyone to hone their skills as a seducer on her, and every time, catching the attentive gaze of blue eyes directed at her, she buried herself in the disheveled guest book with a concentrated look. She had no idea then that for men like Gerald Darell, obstacles and difficulties only intensify the desire to achieve their goals...
For two long years, the stubborn zoologist, not paying attention to either Jackie’s coldness or her father’s threatening glances, tirelessly invented excuses that demanded more and more visits to Manchester, until one day he tore the long-awaited “yes” from the lips that had teased him for so long. Jackie still doesn’t understand very well how he managed to do this... Just looking one day into the mischievous and slightly embarrassed blue eyes, which she had long ceased to be afraid of, she suddenly wanted to give up on all doubts... Well, the next morning the most important thing was not let the doubts come back and leave before my father, who had been away for several days, showed up...
With flushed cheeks, Jackie stuffed her simple girl's belongings into boxes and paper bags. Seeing how she and Gerald carried her disheveled dowry, bristling with scraps of string, into the carriage, the old conductor chuckled skeptically: “Are you planning to get married?” And looking around at Jackie’s puny figure, covered in bags, he sighed, giving the go-ahead to the departing train: “God help you.”
When they arrived in Bournemouth, Jackie unpacked her luggage and found out that she didn't even have a decent blouse to wear to her own wedding. It's good that I found a pair of new stockings. Neither she nor Gerald were superstitious then and saw nothing wrong with the fact that their wedding day fell on a Monday. Gerald and Jackie were married on a gloomy February morning in 1951, surrounded by the bustling Darell family, and the entire subsequent day remained in Jackie's memory as a continuous stream of congratulations, sighs and tender smiles that tired her terribly. Her relatives, who had not forgiven Jackie for her hasty escape, never came to the wedding - they pretended that she had simply disappeared from their lives.
Jackie stubbornly shook her head: she no longer needs these memories! She put them out of her mind three years ago, and she should do the same now. We must forget everything in order to start life over. But damn it, she'll never forgive Gerald for putting her through this twice. Leaving Jersey, Jackie would be happy to sign any paperwork confirming her breakup with Gerald Darell without looking. However, her abandoned husband, who returned from a trip to Mauritius, seemed not at all willing to file for divorce. He did not appear at court hearings, told his friends that he could not stop hoping for his wife’s return, and begged her for a meeting. IN last time they met in a small cafe in his native Bournemouth...
Jackie convinced herself that she had to pay Gerald this last imaginary duty: to meet him and explain herself honestly. But as soon as she looked into Jerry’s sky-blue, guilty-friendly eyes and saw on his face the expression of a naughty schoolboy so familiar to her, she immediately realized that he did not expect any explanations from her. He had absolutely no need for her painful attempts to understand their mutual feelings. Lord, Darell has never been interested in anyone’s feelings except his own! He simply couldn’t stand being alone, and therefore Jackie had to return, and he didn’t care at all what she thought about this. He was ready to repent and make promises, assure Jackie of his love and describe to her the delights of new exotic expeditions that they could go on together, but only for his own sake, and not at all for her sake. Knowing like no one else how eloquent Gerald Darell can be when he wants to get something, Jackie, perched on the edge of a chair, silently sipped her coffee, indifferently listening to Jerry's tirades about the snowy expanses of Russia, which he so wants to see with her, about the protection wildlife and zoo on the island of Jersey.
“Apparently Mallinson didn’t read my note to him, otherwise he wouldn’t have reminded me about the zoo,” Jackie thought automatically. Leaving Jersey, she simply had to somehow throw out the feelings that had taken hold of her. Writing to Gerald was beyond her strength. But she did drop a line or two to his deputy Jeremy Mallinson - old friend families. Before Jackie's eyes these lines were still standing, hastily scribbled on the back of some bill that came to hand: "Goodbye, I hope I never see this damn place again in my life." My God, and Gerald is telling her about the new enclosures that he plans to order for his beloved gorillas! The boy, the stupid gray-haired boy, he never understood anything...
Jackie knew that many admired Darell's boyishness, his childlike direct perception of the world around him, his rich, albeit somewhat crude, humor. But only she knew what it was really like to be the wife of a man who, at fifty years old, continues to be twelve years old: impatient, stubborn, and also overly spontaneous, Jackie shuddered every time they began to retell the legends about “the handsome and witty Jerry,” recalling the details of his most disgusting antics. She herself remembered each of them perfectly - it is impossible to forget such a thing, no matter how much you try.
How much nerves did even the ill-fated visit of Princess Anna, who came to admire their zoo, cost her! Not only did Jerry have the intelligence to lead the princess straight to the cages of the mandrill monkeys, but he also kept describing to her the masculine charms of the grimacing male, finally blurting out from an excess of feelings:
Tell me honestly, princess, would you like to have the same raspberry-blue butt?
By God, Jackie was ready to fall through the ground! And Jerry, as if nothing had happened, looked at Her Royal Highness with shining eyes and did not even seem to notice the tension gathering behind them. And he still dared to be offended by the scolding his wife gave him in the evening! Even many years later, Jackie could not forgive him that day, and at the same time the evening that Jerry spent alone with another bottle of gin, instead of writing a letter of apology to the princess.
Damn this Greek island where he grew up. It was damned Corfu that made him like this! Corfu, where everything was allowed. And also his adored mother, ready to follow the lead of her precious youngest son in everything. Just think, Louise Darell took Gerald out of school just because the boy was bored and lonely there! Of all the school subjects, little Gerald was interested in biology alone, and Louise felt that he could easily master this science at home, tinkering with his many pets - fortunately, Gerald found fascinating not only dogs and cats, but also ants, snails, earwigs, and indeed any living creature I could find. And in 1935, when Gerald turned ten, it occurred to Louise to move to Greece, to Corfu, where for five years their whole family did nothing but swim, sunbathe and indulge their own whims. Louise Darell's late husband, a successful engineer with a distinguished career in India, left his wife and children with enough money when he died to ensure they didn't have to worry about anything. Which they did with success.
Gerald told Jackie countless times about almost every delightful day he spent in Corfu. And who doesn’t know these stories of his now: every year “My Family and Other Animals” is scattered around the world in millions of copies. Three fairy-tale houses: strawberry, narcissus and snow-white... Touching stories about a boy discovering the world of wildlife under the guidance of a wise friend and mentor Theodore Stefanides... An idyllic image of a mother who, having laid out an old notebook brought from India before her eyes with her favorite recipes, conjures in the kitchen over half a dozen pots and pans in which dinner is cooked and fried, capable of feeding not only her four children, but also all their many friends and acquaintances who would like to come in for a snack today... Mom, invariably meeting her sons' most desperate ideas with the phrase: "I think, dear, you should try this..." Well, who among the readers of these masterfully written pastorals would think to pay attention to such little things as bottles of wine, gin and whiskey that looked on the table in this family as natural as a salt or pepper shaker... Jerry himself, it seems, did not understand that the sound of whiskey pouring into a glass had become part of his family idyll since childhood... His mother often went to bed with a bottle in hand. And Jerry, who slept in the same room with his mother, clearly saw Louise leaning on the pillows and turning over the pages of the book, drinking a glass. Sometimes the whole family would while away the evening drinking a bottle in his mother’s bedroom, and Jerry would peacefully go to bed to the chatter of his elders and the clinking of their glasses. For the first time, seeing Gerald having breakfast with a bottle of brandy, washed down with milk, Jackie was horrified: in their family there were no stories more terrible than the memories of the ill-fated Uncle Peter, who covered the whole family with indelible shame, and his grandfather, who drank himself before he was forty. But little by little she had to come to terms with the fact that Gerald couldn’t get by at breakfast without at least a couple of bottles of beer, and besides, moral tales about other people’s mistakes made absolutely no impression on him. Gerald Darell preferred to make all the mistakes in this life himself...
Lord, was it only gin and brandy that she had to put up with... Jackie, for example, invariably experienced excruciating awkwardness every time, remembering Corfu, her young husband began to tell her about the dark-skinned, fidgety girls with colored ribbons in their hair, herding goats nearby from their home. Gerald sat down next to them on the ground and habitually joined in an intricate and at the same time simple-minded game, the apotheosis of which was a kiss under the cover of a nearby olive grove. Sometimes the kisses had a more significant continuation. And then Jerry and another partner with flushed faces and tangled clothes climbed out of the grove to the malicious giggle of young shepherdesses. Jerry was amused by the fact that Jackie invariably blushed at these stories... “Understand, silly, you can’t breed animals without knowing all the subtleties about sex,” Gerald condescendingly explained to her, not thinking about what in provincial Manchester, where Jackie grew up, such shepherd games were not accepted among decent girls, and if some played them, they preferred to keep quiet about it... Over twenty-five years of married life, Jackie was never able to share this bacchanalian reverence for sex that she loved so much demonstrate her husband - just during this time, the girlish embarrassment that once tormented her was replaced by tired irritation...
“The cloudless world of my childhood... The irrevocable fairy tale of Corfu... The island where Christmas awaits you every day” - Jackie simply could not hear her husband’s lamentations. She always felt that nothing good would come of such trips into the past, and she turned out to be right, a thousand times right... An unconscious, melancholy premonition of trouble, which did not leave her for a minute that summer of 1968, painfully surfaced in Jackie’s heart. Jerry acted like he was possessed. “I will show you the real Corfu, you will definitely see it,” he repeated continuously. And driven by the whimsical will of the owner, their Land Rover circled around the island in some kind of crazy frenzy.
But the fabulous island, like a deserted mirage, melted into the distance of memories... The shepherd girls with whom Jerry once kissed in the olive groves had long ago turned into busty, loud matrons, in the reserved valleys of his childhood hotels grew like mushrooms, and the deserted beaches were driven by the wind left by impudent tourists plastic cups and plastic bags. Jackie tried to convince her husband that the changes that had occurred on the island over thirty years were completely natural. But Jerry did not know how to put up with things that seemed inevitable obvious to everyone else. And even more so, he did not want to admit it on the island of his childhood... Two years ago, Gerald lost his mother and now he was completely unprepared to lose Corfu as well.
On that trip, he did not part with his camera, constantly photographing the island and taking dozens of photographs of the same bays, islets and hills memorable from childhood. It was as if he hoped that from the magical depths of the photographic cuvette, as if by magic, that Corfu would appear again, which forever remained somewhere far away, in an irretrievable golden past... But the wet photographs hung on string reflected only the joyless present.
And Gerald spent hours looking at the photographs, silently moving his lips.
And then another binge happened to Jerry... Even Jackie, who was used to a lot of things, lost her nerves... Looking at how swollen, with matted hair and reddened eyes, Gerald sits motionless on the veranda for days and nights, staring into the distance and Holding another bottle by the neck, Jackie's greatest fear was that she would find him one morning on the floor with his throat cut or swinging in a noose tied to the ledge. By some miracle, she managed to take her husband to England and put him in a clinic... None of their friends understood how all this could happen to “jolly Jerry,” but Jackie knew that Corfu was to blame for everything. This island made Jerry an idealist, which he remained forever. That summer, Jackie finally believed in what she had only dimly guessed before: all her husband’s zoological expeditions, all his efforts to organize an unprecedented, very special zoo, created not for the sake of visitors, but for the sake of animals, all his struggle to preserve endangered species on earth animals are nothing more than a fanatically stubborn pursuit of the elusive Eden, which Jerry once lost and is now frantically trying to find again... And Jackie realized one more thing that summer: she herself did not want to spend her life chasing other people’s chimeras. ,
After being discharged from the clinic, Gerald, on the advice of his doctor, lived separately from his wife for some time. And Jackie, I must admit, was glad about it... She intuitively understood that it was all over, and although she and Jerry had seven more years of marriage ahead, it was more like an agony that killed even those happy memories that they still had...
And now, by the grace of her ex-husband, Jackie must again go through all this horror, with the only difference that the matter looks somewhat new. It turns out that it is not she who finally and irrevocably abandons Gerald, who is vainly begging her to return, but her fifty-four-year-old husband, on the eve of his new marriage to a young beauty, asks his ex-wife to settle the remaining formalities. Jackie was forced to admit that this slight shift in emphasis turned out to be very painful for her pride, because after twenty-five years of marriage she had become accustomed to holding Gerald Darell in her fist. And if she hadn’t held him like that, Jerry would still be cleaning cages somewhere in a run-of-the-mill menagerie! God alone knows what it took her to tame this stubborn guy, how much sugar she had to feed him from her hand and how many slaps she had to give... Not a single animal in their zoo could hold a candle to her Jerry in terms of stubbornness. But a trainer like Jackie was also worth looking for...
At one time, Jacqueline Darell thought that the sound of the typewriter keys would haunt her for the rest of her life. This persistent, annoying sound and the bright light of the electric light bulb mercilessly invaded her sleep night after night, turning her dreams into one incessant nightmare. But Jackie only buried her head deeper into the pillow and silently pulled the blanket over her face: after all, she herself started this mess, persuading her husband for almost a year to write some story about adventures in Africa, and now she is not going to back down.
All this year that passed after their wedding, Jerry unsuccessfully bombarded English zoos with letters, trying in vain to find at least some work for himself and Jackie. However, the rare responses that came to their requests invariably contained polite refusals and notices that English zoos were fully staffed. Time passed, and they still lived in the room that Jerry's sister Margaret had given them, ate at her table and counted the pennies, which were not enough even to buy newspapers with job advertisements. For days on end, the newlyweds sat in their tiny room on the carpet in front of the fireplace, whileing away the hours at the radio. And then one day they heard a certain lively fellow from the BBC telling tall tales about Cameroon. It was as if Jerry's apathy had been blown away by the wind. Jumping up, he began to run around the room, blaspheming the journalist, who understood nothing either about African life or about the habits and morals of the inhabitants of the jungle. And Jackie realized that her time had come.
It seems that that day she surpassed even Gerald himself in eloquence - for an hour she described to her wife his unique talent as a storyteller, the hereditary literary gift of the Darell family, which had already given the world one famous writer, Lawrence Darell, Jerry's older brother, and finally appealed to common sense a husband who had to finally understand that they could not forever sit on the neck of his mother and sister. When, two days later, Jackie overheard Jerry asking Margaret if she knew where she could borrow a typewriter, she knew the ice had broken.
Soon Jerry, inspired by the success of his first stories and the royalties received for their performance on the radio, began working on the book “The Crowded Ark.” In the mornings, Jackie brewed strong tea, and Jerry, barely having time to put the empty cup on the saucer, collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep before his head hit the pillow. And Jackie, trying to ignore the pain coursing through her temples, picked up a stack of freshly printed sheets. Sitting in the corner of a wide armchair and sipping a scalding drink from a chipped cup, she began to edit what her husband had managed to write during the night: his childhood years, free from the pressure of school, forever left Gerald with a legacy of disrespect for traditional English spelling and punctuation.
The pain in my temples gradually went away, replaced by fascinating reading. Jackie never ceased to be amazed at how Jerry managed to make the stories she had heard hundreds of times so entertaining. At times, it seemed to Jackie that she knew absolutely everything about the expeditions undertaken by Gerald... Once, wanting to attract the attention of Jackie, who was not too kind to him, the young man persistently entertained her with hilariously detailed and excitingly tense stories about his adventures. But now, reading the same stories put down on paper by Gerald, Jackie saw the events she already knew in a completely new way. Apparently, she did not sin too much against the truth, extolling Gerald's literary gift... Lord, why did Darell need to spend a lot of time, effort and money tinkering with all these animals, instead of just continuing to write stories about animals, bringing in such good fees?
For me, literature is only a way of obtaining the funds necessary to work with animals, and nothing more,” Jerry explained over and over again to his wife, who pressed him to sit down with a new book, and began to work only when they urgently demanded it the financial situation and needs of their many pets.
Sitting in your pants at a typewriter while everything around you was boiling. real life, was sheer torment for Gerald...
For many years, Jackie stubbornly tried to convince herself that she, too, was interested in all these birds, insects, mammals and amphibians her husband adored. But deep down she knew that her own love for animals had never gone beyond a healthy sentimental attachment. It’s just that while she had enough strength, she tried to honestly fulfill her duty, helping Gerald in everything related to the work that he considered his calling. Jackie fed countless animal babies from the nipple, cleaned stinking cages, washed bowls and begged wherever possible money for their zoo. And Gerald took all this for granted, believing that the natural destiny of a wife is to follow the same path with her husband... She was told that after her departure, Gerald had to hire three employees who could hardly cope with the volume of work that Jackie carried on herself long years. She did everything to make Gerald’s dream come true, and it was not her fault that Jerry managed to instill jealousy and hatred of this dream come true in his wife’s soul.
Jackie knew that many were surprised by the calm with which she looked at Jerry's open flirtation with the secretaries, journalists and students who always revolved around her impressive and witty husband. More than once she watched with a grin the jealous quarrels that broke out between these fools. But Jackie realized long ago that in her relationship with Gerald Darell, jealousy should be saved for completely different occasions...
In November 1954, in a starched shirt, a dark suit and an impeccably elegant tie, her irresistibly charming, handsome husband stood on the stage of London's Royal Albert Hall during his first public lecture on animal life and spoke as if nothing had happened, anticipating the appearance of Jackie, who was feverishly preening behind the scenes:
And now, gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you two representatives of the opposite sex. I received them in different ways. I managed to catch one on the Gran Chaco plain, and the second I had to marry. Meet! My wife and Miss Sarah Hagersack,
To the cheerful laughter and applause of the audience, Jackie entered the stage, frantically clutching the leash on which she was leading a female anteater brought by the Darells from a recent expedition to Argentina. From the very first second, Jackie realized that her elegant outfit, her carefully applied makeup, and herself in the eyes of Jerry and the cheering public were nothing more than an addition to the wet nose and sticking out fur of “Miss Hagersack.” And, God knows, Jackie never hated a single woman in her life as keenly as she hated the unsuspecting poor Sarah in those minutes. After this evening, rumors about “Gerald Darell - the stealer of women's hearts” never again worried Jackie. And she absolutely did not care that her husband’s mischievous smile and velvety voice made a truly irresistible impression on the ladies...
At first, Jacqueline’s own feelings and this strange “animal” jealousy even frightened her a little. But over time, she realized that she had every right to them: after all, she was jealous of her equals. Gerald Darell didn't just love animals the way he loves his average little dog. English boy. He always felt like one of these countless animals. He was captivated by the simple and unshakable logic of the animal world. Without exception, all the animals Jerry had to deal with wanted the same thing: suitable habitats, food and breeding partners. And when his animals had all this, Gerald felt calm. In the human world, he always felt like a debtor...
Naturally and effortlessly immersing yourself in natural environment, Jerry was sincerely perplexed why such immersion was not always liked by loved ones. His older brother Lawrence told Jackie a thousand times with a shudder that when Jerry was a child, the bathtubs in their house were always full of newts, and a live and very malicious scorpion could easily crawl out of a matchbox lying innocently on the mantelpiece. However, mother Darell indulged her beloved youngest son here too. Louise was always ready to wash herself in the recent abode of newts without any objections. Mother did not stop Jerry when he, having barely reached adulthood, decided to use the funds inherited from his father’s will on some crazy zoological expeditions. However, it is worth recognizing that these travels not only completely ate up her son’s small fortune, but also made a name for him...
During her many exotic trips with Gerald, Jackie never ceased to be amazed at how little trouble her husband got into because of the things that drove her crazy. She still remembers with disgust the sticky sweat that covered her around the clock during their trip to Cameroon, and the disgusting, fetid cabin on the ship en route to South America. But Gerald did not notice the heat, cold, unusual food, unpleasant odors and annoying sounds made by his pets. One day, having caught a mongoose, Gerald put the nimble animal in his bosom during the journey. All the way the mongoose poured urine on him and scratched him mercilessly, but Jerry did not pay attention to it. When they reached the camp, he only looked dead tired, but was neither irritated nor angry. And at the same time, her husband could choke with anger if she accidentally put too much sugar in his tea...
Yes, Jackie had the right to her “animal” jealousy, but this did not make life next to Gerald any easier for her. Day by day, Jackie became more and more irritated by her existence in Jersey. Now she found it hard to believe that she had once suggested choosing this island as the location of their future zoo.
Gerald and Jackie created their first menagerie in 1957 in Bournemouth - on the lawn behind his sister's house. When Gerald became drunk and mopey during another expedition into the jungle, Jackie managed to get him back on his feet in a matter of days, offering to start collecting animals not for other people’s zoos, but for her own. And upon returning from Cameroon, their motley and diverse African wealth began to urgently demand shelter. Mongooses, large monkeys and other more or less hardy animals were placed right in the yard under an awning, and whimsical birds and reptiles were placed in the garage. The animals spent almost three years in Bournemouth until Gerald and his wife found an old estate on the island of Jersey, which the owner was ready to rent out for anything... The first cages were made from construction waste: pieces of wire, boards, scraps of metal mesh. And then there were years of ordeal, lived under the constant threat of financial collapse, when the zoo even saved on brooms and garden hoses... Jackie knew that not everyone liked the rigidity with which she managed this entire household. Many of the employees would clearly prefer that the more lenient Gerald handle things. But Jackie made it clear to everyone, and most of all to Jerry himself, that his job was to make money at the typewriter. She believed that he would only be grateful to her if she protected him from the exhausting troubles of everyday life. And this is what she received instead of gratitude... Lord, what did Gerald do to her soul if she hated what she put so much work into?
If only he had once shown as much attention to Jackie as to his animals... But all of Jacqueline’s attempts to explain herself ended in failure: her husband was simply unable to understand what she was even talking about.
That's when Jackie went into deliberate provocation. “Beasts in My Bed” is the title of her book, full of cruel revelations, written after seventeen years of marriage with Gerald Darell. God knows, this merciless book, these evil words were not easy for her: “I am beginning to hate the zoo and everything connected with it... I feel that I married a zoo, and not a person.” But she hoped so much that after the book’s release something would change...
Alas, it soon became clear that she was mistaken... Jacqueline watched almost with hatred as Gerald laughed as he turned the pages. However, now Jackie is perhaps ready to admit that his laughter that evening was somewhat forced and pitiful. But then, blinded by her own resentment, she did not notice it... The Island of Jersey really became hateful to her. Jackie was simply fed up with the love moans, hoots, screams and growls that accompanied her life around the clock. The eternal conversations about animals and their reproduction, which took place in the living room from morning to night, became unbearable to her. Is Gerald really not able to understand how childless Jackie, who has experienced several miscarriages, is hurt by his enthusiasm for the next cub brought by a gorilla or a spectacled bear? How can he take seriously her statements that she considers the chimpanzee living with them to be her own child? Well, if Jerry really is that stupid, then he got what he deserved. And one day, getting up in the morning, Jackie suddenly clearly understood that for all the good in the world she no longer wanted to see Przewalski’s horses from the living room window, crowned cranes from the dining room and lustful Celebes monkeys having sex around the clock from the kitchen window. That's when she said to herself: "It's now or never!"
Jackie collected the papers scattered on the table, picked up several fallen sheets of paper from the floor, and carefully trimmed the entire stack. Tomorrow the lawyer will pick up the documents, after which the history of her relationship with Gerald Darell can be put to rest. Jackie will never allow herself to repent of her decision. Jerry will not expect that from her. The only thing she may regret is that she did not have the courage to make such a decision earlier. However, that fool who is going to marry Mr. Darell is also worthy of pity. Jerry has enough strength and time left to ruin more than one woman's destiny...
Jackie remembered all the rumors about ex-husband that reached her in Last year. I remember once Jerry and his fiancee even flashed in some news release: “Gerald Darell and his charming girlfriend Lee McGeorge feed a killer whale in the Vancouver aquarium.” Well, one cannot help but admit that the girl is really good: slender, dark-haired, big-eyed, and together with the dense, gray-haired and gray-bearded Gerald they made a very impressive duo. Perhaps, for the first time in many years, something resembling jealousy stirred in Jackie’s heart. I think someone told her that Gerald had met Miss McGeorge in North Carolina at Duke University, where she was supposedly doing her doctorate on primate communication. Having learned about this, Jerry, right in the middle of the ceremonial buffet reception arranged in his honor by the university authorities, invited his new acquaintance to reproduce the mating calls of Madagascar lemurs... And Jackie was forced to admit to herself that she would have enjoyed watching the beauty dressed in a low-cut dress screams in a monkey's voice in front of the amazed professors' wives. Well, in order to please Gerald, the girl will have to say goodbye to hopes for respectability. However, such material for scientific works, as in Jersey, this zoologist cannot be collected in any other zoo in the world: it is enough to place the tape recorder directly on the windowsill of the open window of the director’s apartment. So, it looks like the girl was no mistake. Now Gerald Darell will be able to court a doctor of sciences. Who today will remember that the world-famous naturalist has no biological education, and practically no ordinary education, and his illiterate manuscripts were once ruled by Jackie for days on end...
Shaking her head, Jacqueline drove away unnecessary thoughts, put the stack of papers in a folder and carefully tied the ribbons... From now on, she has nothing to do with Jersey, or Gerald Darell, or his learned bride...
In the spring of 1979, fifty-four-year-old Gerald Darell, having finally filed a divorce from his first wife Jacqueline, married twenty-nine-year-old Lee McGeorge. Together with his new wife, he finally visited Russia, which he had dreamed of visiting for so long. After a long break, Darell returned to his beloved island of Corfu and successfully filmed several episodes of a documentary film about the naturalist's travels there.
Darell never saw Jackie again, vowing that he would not even allow her to cross the threshold of his zoo. Despite all of Lee’s efforts, Gerald could not cope with his addiction to whiskey, gin and his beloved “cholesterol cuisine” and paid for it in full: after undergoing several operations to replace arthritic joints and a liver transplant, Gerald Darell died in the hospital soon after his seventieth birthday. His wife Lee, in accordance with her husband's wishes, became honorary director of the Jersey Wildlife Trust upon his death.
Antonina Variash BEASTS AND WOMEN OF GERALD DARELL. // Caravan of stories (Moscow).- 04.08.2003.- 008.- P.74-88
Gerald Malcolm Durrell (born Gerald Malcolm Durrell; January 7, 1925, Jamshedpur, Indian Empire - January 30, 1995, Jersey) - English zoologist, animal writer, younger brother of Lawrence Durrell.
Gerald Durrell was born in 1925 in the Indian city of Jamshedpur. According to relatives, at the age of two, Gerald fell ill with “zoomania”, and his mother even claimed that his first word was not “mom”, but “zoo” (zoo).
In 1928, after the death of their father, the family moved to England, and five years later - on the advice of older brother Gerald Lawrence - to the Greek island of Corfu. Among Gerald Durrell's first home teachers there were few real educators. The only exception was the naturalist Theodore Stephanides (1896-1983). It was from him that Gerald received his first knowledge of zoology. Stephanides appears more than once on the pages of the famous book Gerald Durrell's novel My Family and Other Animals. The book “The Amateur Naturalist” (1968) is also dedicated to him.
In 1939 (after the outbreak of World War II), Gerald and his family returned to England and got a job in one of the London pet stores. But the real start of Darrell's research career was his work at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. Gerald got a job here immediately after the war as an “animal boy.” It was here that he received his first professional training and began collecting a “dossier” containing information about rare and endangered species of animals (and this was 20 years before the appearance of the International Red Book).
In 1947, Gerald Durrell, having reached adulthood, received part of his father's inheritance. With this money he organized two expeditions - to Cameroon and Guyana. These expeditions do not bring profit, and in the early 50s Gerald finds himself without a livelihood and work. Not a single zoo in Australia, the USA or Canada could offer him a position. At this time, Lawrence Durrell, Gerald's older brother, advises him to take up his pen, especially since “the English love books about animals.”
Gerald's first story, “The Hunt for the Hairy Frog,” was an unexpected success; the author was even invited to speak on the radio. His first book, The Overloaded Ark (1952), was about a trip to Cameroon and received rave reviews from both readers and critics. The author was noticed by major publishers, and the royalties for “The Overloaded Ark” and Gerald Durrell’s second book, “Three Singles To Adventure” (1953), allowed him to organize an expedition to South America in 1954. However, at that time there was a military coup in Paraguay, and almost the entire living collection had to be abandoned. Darrell described his impressions of this trip in next book- “Under the canopy of the drunken forest” (The Drunken Forest, 1955). At the same time, at the invitation of Lawrence, Gerald Durrell vacationed in Corfu. Familiar places evoked a lot of childhood memories - this is how the famous “Greek” trilogy appeared: “My Family and Other Animals” (1955), “Birds, Beasts and Relatives” (1969) and “The Garden of the Gods” (The Gardens) of The Gods, 1978). The first book of the trilogy was a wild success. In the UK alone, My Family and Other Animals was reprinted 30 times, and in the USA 20 times.
Sculpture at Jersey Zoo
In total, Gerald Durrell wrote more than 30 books (almost all of them were translated into dozens of languages) and made 35 films. The debut four-part television film “To Bafut for Beef,” released in 1958, was very popular in England. Thirty years later, Darrell managed to film in the Soviet Union, with active participation and assistance from the Soviet side. The result was the thirteen-episode film “Durrell in Russia” (also shown on the first channel of domestic television in 1988) and the book “Durrell in Russia” (not translated into Russian). In the USSR it was published repeatedly and in large editions.
In 1959, Darrell created a zoo on the island of Jersey, and in 1963, the Jersey Wildlife Conservation Trust was organized on the basis of the zoo. Darrell's main idea was to breed rare animals in a zoo and then resettle them in their natural habitats. This idea has now become a generally accepted scientific concept. If it were not for the Jersey Trust, many animal species would survive only as stuffed animals in museums.
Gerald Durrell died on January 30, 1995, of blood poisoning, nine months after a liver transplant, at age 71.
Major works
* 1952-1953 - “The Overloaded Ark”
* 1953 - “Three Singles To Adventure”
* 1953 - “The Bafut Beagles”
* 1955 - “My Family and Other Animals”
* 1955 - “Under the canopy of the drunken forest” (The Drunken Forest)
* 1955 - “The new Noah”
* 1960 - “A Zoo in My Luggage”
* 1961 - “Zoos” (Look At Zoos)
* 1962 - “The Whispering Land”
* 1964 - “Menagerie Manor”
* 1966 - “Way of the Kangaroo” / “Two in the Bush” (Two in The Bush)
* 1968 - “The Donkey Rustlers”
* 1969 - “Birds, Beasts And Relatives”
* 1971 - “Fillet of Plaice”
* 1972 - “Catch Me A Colobus”
* 1973 - “Beasts In My Belfry”
* 1974 - “The Talking Parcel”
* 1976 - “The Ark on the Island” (The Stationary Ark)
* 1977 - “Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons”
* 1978 - “The Garden of the Gods”
* 1979 - “The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium”
* 1981 - “The mockery bird”
* 1984 - “How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist”
* 1990 - “The Ark’s Anniversary”
* 1991 - Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories
* 1992 - “The Aye-aye and I”
Animal species and subspecies named after Gerald Durrell
* Clarkeia durrelli: extinct Upper Silurian brachiopod belonging to Atrypida, discovered in 1982 (however, it is not clear that it was named after J. Durrell)
* Nactus serpeninsula durrelli: a subspecies of the night snake gecko from Round Island (part of the island nation of Mauritius).
* Ceylonthelphusa durrelli: freshwater crab from Sri Lanka.
* Benthophilus durrelli: fish of the family Gobiidae.
* Kotchevnik durrelli: a moth of the superfamily Cossoidea, found in Russia. 
Like every Soviet child, I loved Gerald Durrell's books since childhood. Considering that I loved animals and learned to read very early, bookcases are still childhood were meticulously searched for any of Darrell's books, and the books themselves were read many times.
Then I grew up, my love for animals subsided a little, but my love for Darrell’s books remained. True, over time I began to notice that this love was not entirely cloudless. If before I simply devoured books, as befits a reader, smiling and sad in in the right places, later, reading them as an adult, I discovered something like understatements. There were few of them, they were skillfully hidden, but for some reason it seemed to me that the ironic and good-natured merry fellow Darrell somehow here and there seemed to be covering up a piece of his life or deliberately focusing the reader’s attention on other things. I wasn’t a lawyer then, but for some reason I felt that something was wrong here.
To my shame, I have not read any biographies of Darrell. It seemed to me that the author already described his life in great detail in numerous books, leaving no room for speculation. Yes, sometimes, already on the Internet, I came across “shocking” revelations from various sources, but they were artless and, frankly speaking, were hardly capable of seriously shocking anyone. Well, yes, Gerald himself, it turns out, drank like a fish. Well, yes, he divorced his first wife. Well, yes, there seem to be rumors that the Durrells were not as friendly and loving a family as it seems to the inexperienced reader...
But at some point I came across a biography of Gerald Durrell by Douglas Botting. The book turned out to be quite voluminous and I started reading it by accident. But once I started, I couldn’t stop. I can't explain why. I must admit, I found much more a long time ago interesting books than Gerald Durrell's books. And I'm not ten years old anymore. And yes, I realized a long time ago that people very often tell lies - for a variety of reasons. But I read it. Not because I have some kind of manic interest in Gerald Durrell or because I persistently strive to reveal everything that his family hid from journalists for many years. No. I just thought it was interesting to find all those tiny innuendos and suggestive signs that I caught as a child.
In this regard, Botting's book was ideal. As befits a good biographer, he talks in great detail and calmly about Gerald Durrell throughout his life. From childhood to old age. He is dispassionate and, despite immense respect for the subject of the biography, does not seek to hide his vices, nor does he solemnly demonstrate them to the public. Botting writes about a person, balancedly, carefully, leaving nothing out. This is by no means a dirty laundry hunter, quite the opposite. Sometimes he is even shyly laconic in those parts of Darrell’s biography that would be enough for newspapers to write a couple of hundred catchy headlines.
As a matter of fact, the entire subsequent text essentially consists of about 90% of Botting’s notes; the rest had to be filled in from other sources. I simply wrote down individual facts as I read, solely for myself, without expecting that the summary would take more than two pages. But by the end of reading there were twenty of them, and I realized that I really didn’t know much about my childhood idol. And once again, no, I’m not talking about dirty secrets, family vices and other obligatory vicious ballast of a good-looking British family. Here I post only those facts that, while reading, surprised me, amazed me, or seemed interesting. Simply put, individual and small details of Darrell's life, the understanding of which, it seems to me, will allow us to take a more careful look at his life and read the books in a new way.
I'll break the post into three parts to fit it in. In addition, all the facts will be neatly divided into chapters - in accordance with the milestones of Darrell's life.
The first chapter will be the shortest, as it tells about Darrell's early childhood and his life in India.
1. Initially, the Durrells lived in British India, where Durrell Sr. worked fruitfully as a civil engineer. He managed to provide for his family, the income from his enterprises and securities helped them for a long time, but he also had to pay a severe price - at the age of forty-something Lawrence Darrell (senior) died, apparently from a stroke. After his death, the decision was made to return to England, where, as you know, the family did not stay long.
2. It would seem that Jerry Darrell, a lively and spontaneous child with a monstrous thirst for learning new things, should have become, if not an excellent student in school, then at least the soul of the party. But no. School was so disgusting to him that he felt bad every time he was forcibly taken there. The teachers, for their part, considered him a dull and lazy child. And he himself almost lost consciousness at the mere mention of school.
3. Despite their British citizenship, all family members had a surprisingly similar attitude towards their historical homeland, namely, they could not stand it. Larry Darrell called it Pudding Island and argued that a mentally healthy person in Foggy Albion is not able to survive for more than a week. The rest were practically unanimous with him and tirelessly confirmed their position with practice. Mother and Margot subsequently settled firmly in France, followed by the adult Gerald. Leslie settled down in Kenya. As for Larry, he was constantly traveling all over the world, and he visited England on short visits, and with obvious displeasure. However, I have already gotten ahead of myself.
4. The mother of the large and noisy Durrell family, despite the fact that she appears in her son’s texts as an absolutely infallible person with only merits, had her own little weaknesses, one of which was alcohol from her youth. Their mutual friendship was born in India, and after the death of her husband it only steadily grew stronger. According to the recollections of acquaintances and eyewitnesses, Mrs. Darrell went to bed exclusively in the company of a bottle of gin, but in the preparation of homemade wines she outshone everyone and everything. However, looking ahead again, the love of alcohol seems to have been passed on to all members of this family, albeit unevenly.
Let's move on to Jerry's childhood in Corfu, which later became the basis for the wonderful book My Family and Other Animals. I read this book as a child and re-read it probably twenty times. And the older I got, the more often it seemed to me that this narrative, endlessly optimistic, bright and ironic, was missing something. The pictures of the cloudless existence of the Durrell family in the pristine Greek paradise were too beautiful and natural. I can’t say that Darrell seriously embellished reality, glossed over some shameful details or something like that, but discrepancies with reality in some places may surprise the reader.
According to researchers of Durrell's work, biographers and critics, the entire trilogy ("My Family and Other Animals", "Birds, Beasts and Relatives", "Garden of the Gods") is not very uniform in terms of authenticity and the reliability of the events presented, so it should not be assumed completely Autobiographical is still not worth it. It is generally accepted that only the first book became truly documentary; the events described in it fully correspond to the real ones, perhaps with minor inclusions of fantasy and inaccuracies. It should, however, be taken into account that Darrell began writing the book at the age of thirty-one, and in Corfu he was ten, so many details of his childhood could easily be lost in memory or acquired imaginary details. Other books are wrong fiction much more, being rather a fusion of fiction and non-fiction literature. Thus, the second book (“Birds, Beasts and Relatives”) includes a large number of fictional stories, Darrell later even regretted including some of them. Well, the third (“Garden of the Gods”) is actually a work of art with your favorite characters.
Corfu: Margot, Nancy, Larry, Jerry, mom.
5. Judging by the book, Larry Darrell constantly lived with the entire family, pestering its members with irritating self-confidence and poisonous sarcasm, and also serving from time to time as a source of trouble of various shapes, properties and sizes. This is not entirely true. The fact is that Larry never lived in the same house with his family. From the first day in Greece, he and his wife Nancy rented their own house, and at certain periods of time they even lived in a neighboring city, but only periodically dropped in to visit their relatives. Moreover, Margot and Leslie, when they reached the age of twenty, also showed attempts to live an independent life and for some time lived separately from the rest of the family.
Larry Darrell
6. Don’t you remember his wife Nancy?.. However, it would be surprising if they did, since she is simply absent from the book “My Family and Other Animals”. But she was not invisible. Nancy often visited the Durrell houses with Larry and certainly deserved at least a couple of paragraphs of text. There is an opinion that it was erased from the manuscript by the author, allegedly because bad relationship with the mother of a troubled family, but this is not so. Gerald deliberately did not mention her in the book in order to establish an emphasis on "family", leaving only the Durrells in focus. Nancy would hardly have made a supporting figure like Theodore or Spiro; after all, she was not a servant, but she didn’t want to be associated with the family either. In addition, at the time of publication of the book (1956), Larry and Nancy’s marriage had broken up, so there was even less desire to remember the old things. So, just in case, the author completely lost his brother’s wife between the lines. It was as if she was not in Corfu at all.
Larry and his wife Nancy, 1934
7. Jerry's temporary teacher, Kralewski, a shy dreamer and author of crazy stories “about the Lady,” actually existed, only his last name had to be changed, just in case, from the original “Krajewski” to “Kralewski.” This was hardly done for fear of prosecution from the island's most inspired myth-maker. The fact is that Krajewski, along with his mother and all the canaries, died tragically during the war - a German bomb fell on his house.
8. I won’t go into detail about Theodore Stefanides, a naturalist and Jerry’s first real teacher. He has been noted enough for his long life to deserve it. I will only note that Theo and Jerry’s friendship lasted not only during the “Corfucian” period. Over the decades, they met many times and, although they did not work together, they maintained an excellent relationship until their deaths. The fact that he played a significant role in the Durrell family is evidenced by the fact that both writing brothers, Larry and Jerry, subsequently dedicated books to him, “The Greek Islands” (Lawrence Durrell) and “Birds, Beasts and Kin” (Gerald Durrell ). Darrell also dedicated “The Young Naturalist,” one of his most successful works, to him.
Theodore Stephanides
9. Remember the colorful story about the Greek Kostya, who killed his wife, but whom the prison authorities periodically let him go for a walk and unwind? This meeting actually happened, with one small difference - the Darrell who met the strange prisoner was named Leslie. Yes, Jerry attributed it to himself just in case.
10. The text reveals that the Booth Thicktail, the Durrell family's epic boat on which Jerry carried out his scientific expeditions, was built by Leslie. In fact, it was just bought. All her technical improvements consisted of installing a homemade mast (unsuccessful).
11. Another of Jerry's teachers, called Peter (actually Pat Evans), did not leave the island during the war. Instead, he joined the partisans and showed himself very well in this field. Unlike poor fellow Kraevsky, he even remained alive and later returned to his homeland as a hero.
12. The reader involuntarily gets the feeling that the Durrell family found their Eden immediately after arriving on the island, only staying at the hotel for a short time. In fact, this period of their life dragged on for quite some time, and it was difficult to call it pleasant. The fact is that due to some financial circumstances, the mother of the family temporarily lost access to funds from England. So for some time the family lived practically from hand to mouth, on pasture. What kind of Eden is this... The true savior was Spiro, who not only found a new home for the Durrells, but also in some unknown way settled all disagreements with the Greek bank.
13. It is unlikely that ten-year-old Gerald Durrell, accepting goldfish from Spiro, stolen by a resourceful Greek from the royal pond, imagined that thirty years later he himself would become an honored guest in the royal palace.
Spiro and Jerry
14. By the way, financial circumstances, among others, explain the family’s departure back to England. The Durrells originally had shares in some Burmese enterprise, inherited from their late father. With the advent of the war, this financial stream was completely blocked, and others became thinner every day. The end result was that Mission Durrell was faced with the need to return to London to organize her financial assets.
15. From the text, one gets the full feeling that the family has returned home in full force with an appendage like a bunch of animals. But this is a serious inaccuracy. Only Jerry himself, his mother, his brother Leslie and the Greek maid returned to England. All the rest remained in Corfu, despite the outbreak of war and the threatening position of Corfu in the light of recent military-political events. Larry and Nancy stayed there until the last, but then they finally left Corfu by ship. The most surprising behavior of all was Margot, who in the text is depicted as a very narrow-minded and simple-minded person. She fell in love with Greece so much that she refused to return even if it was occupied by German troops. Agree, remarkable fortitude for a simple-minded girl of twenty years old. By the way, she still left the island on the last plane, succumbing to the persuasion of one flight technician, whom she later married.
16. By the way, there is one more small detail regarding Margot that is still in the shadows. It is believed that her brief absence from the island (mentioned by Darrell) is due to her sudden pregnancy and departure to England for an abortion. It’s difficult to say something here. Botting doesn't mention anything like that, but he's very tactful and hasn't been seen trying to deliberately pull skeletons out of Darrell's closets.
17. By the way, the relationship between the British family and the native Greek population was not as idyllic as it seems from the text. No, no serious quarrels with local residents did not arise, but those around them did not look at the Durrells very favorably. Dissolute Leslie (more about whom is yet to come) had plenty of fun in his time and will be remembered for his not always sober antics, while Margot was generally considered a fallen woman, perhaps partly because of her predilection for revealing swimsuits.
Here ends one of the main chapters of Gerald Durrell's life. As he himself admitted many times, Corfu left a very serious imprint on him. But Gerald Durrell after Corfu is a completely different Gerald Durrell. He is no longer a boy, carefree studying the fauna in the front garden, but already a teenager and young man, taking his first steps in the direction he has chosen for the rest of his life. Perhaps the most exciting chapter of his life begins. Adventurous expeditions, rushing, impulses characteristic of youth, hopes and aspirations, love...
18. Darrell's education ended before it really began. He did not go to school, did not receive a higher education, and did not secure any scientific titles for himself. Apart from self-education, his only “scientific” help was a short period of work in an English zoo in the lowest position of an auxiliary worker. However, at the end of his life he was an “honorary professor” of several universities. But this will be very, very long time ago...
19. Young Gerald did not go to war due to a happy coincidence of circumstances - he turned out to be the owner of an advanced sinus disease (chronic catarrh). “Do you want to fight, son? – the officer asked him honestly. "No, sir." "You are a coward?" "Yes, sir". The officer sighed and sent the failed conscript on his way, mentioning, however, that in order to call oneself a coward, a fair amount of courage is required. Be that as it may, Gerald Durrell did not go to war, which is good news.
20. A similar failure befell his brother Leslie. A big fan of everything that could shoot, Leslie wanted to volunteer for the war, but he was also turned away by soulless doctors - he had problems with his ears. Judging by the individual events of his life, what was located between them was also subject to treatment, but more on that separately and later. I can only note that in his family, despite the ardent love of his mother, he was considered a dark and dissolute horse, regularly causing anxiety and trouble.
21. Soon after returning to his historical homeland, Leslie managed to give birth to a child to that same Greek maid and, although the times were far from Victorian, the situation turned out to be very delicate. And she seriously tarnished the family’s reputation after it turned out that Leslie was not going to marry or recognize the child. Thanks to the care of Margot and the mother, the situation was put under control, and the child was given shelter and education. However, this did not have a pedagogical effect on Leslie.
22. For a long time, he could not find work, either openly idle, or embarking on all sorts of dubious adventures, from delivering alcohol (is it legal?) to what his family shyly called “speculation.” In general, the guy was on his way to success, while simultaneously trying to find his place in a big and cruel world. Almost didn't come. I mean, at some point he had to urgently get ready for a business trip to Kenya, where he would work for many years. In general, he evokes a certain sympathy. The only one of the Durrells who was never able to find his calling, but was surrounded on all sides by famous relatives.
23. There is a feeling that Leslie became an outcast immediately after Corfu. The Darrells somehow very quickly and willingly cut off its branch from family tree, despite the fact that for some time they still shared shelter with him. Margo about her brother: “ Leslie is a short, unauthorized home invader, a Rabelaisian figure, lavishing paint on canvases or deeply immersed in the labyrinths of weapons, boats, beer and women, also without a penny, having invested all his inheritance in a fishing boat, which sank before its first voyage in Poole Harbor».
Lawrence Durrell.
24. By the way, Margot herself also did not escape commercial temptation. She turned her part of the inheritance into a fashionable “boarding house”, from which she intended to have a stable profit. She wrote her own memoirs on this subject, but I must admit, I have not had time to read them yet. However, taking into account the fact that later, with two living brothers, she was forced to work as a maid on the liner, the “boarding business” still did not justify itself.
Margo Durrell
25. Gerald Durrell's expeditions did not make him famous, although they were readily covered in newspapers and on the radio. He became famous overnight by publishing his first book, “The Overloaded Ark.” Yes, those were the times when a person, having written the first book in his life, suddenly became a world celebrity. By the way, Jerry didn’t want to write this book. Experiencing a physiological aversion to writing, he tormented himself and his household for a long time and completed the text only thanks to his brother Larry, who endlessly insisted and motivated. The first was quickly followed by two more. All became instant bestsellers. Like all the other books that he published after them.
26. The only book that Gerald admittedly enjoyed writing was My Family and Other Animals. It is not surprising, given that absolutely all members of the Durrell family remembered Corfu with constant tenderness. Nostalgia is a quintessentially English dish after all.
27. Even when reading Darrell's first books, one gets the feeling that the story is told from the perspective of an experienced professional animal catcher. His confidence, his knowledge of wild fauna, his judgment, all this betrays a highly experienced man who has devoted his entire life to capturing wild animals in the most distant and terrible corners of the globe. Meanwhile, at the time of writing these books, Jareld was only slightly over twenty, and all his experience consisted of three expeditions, each of which lasted about six months.
28. Several times the young animal catcher had to be on the verge of death. Not as often as it happens with characters in adventure novels, but still much more often than the average British gentleman. Once, due to his own recklessness, he managed to plunge into a pit infested with poisonous snakes. He himself considered it incredible luck that he managed to get out of it alive. Another time, the snake tooth still overtook its victim. Confident that he was dealing with a non-venomous snake, Darrell became careless and almost passed into another world. The only thing that saved me was that the doctor miraculously had the necessary serum. Several more times he had to suffer from not the most pleasant diseases - sand fever, malaria, jaundice...
29. Despite the image of a lean and energetic animal catcher, in everyday life Gerald behaved like a true homebody. He hated physical exertion and could easily sit in a chair all day.
30. By the way, all three expeditions were equipped personally by Gerald himself, and the inheritance from his father, which he received upon reaching adulthood, was used to finance them. These expeditions gave him considerable experience, but from a financial point of view they turned into a complete collapse, without even recouping the funds spent.
31. Initially, Gerald Durrell did not treat the indigenous population of the British colonies very politely. He considered it possible to order them, to drive them as he pleased, and generally did not put them on the same level as a British gentleman. However, this attitude towards representatives of the Third World quickly changed. Having lived in the company of black people continuously for several months, Gerald began to treat them quite humanly and even with obvious sympathy. It’s a paradox, later his books were criticized more than once precisely because of the “national factor.” At that time, Britain was entering a period of post-colonial repentance, and it was no longer considered politically correct to display unsightly, funny-speaking, and simple-minded savages on the pages of text.
32. Yes, despite the flurry of positive criticism, worldwide fame and millions of copies, Durrell's books were often criticized. And sometimes - on the part of lovers not of colorful people, but of the most animal lovers. It was at that time that “Greenpeace” and neo-ecological movements arose and took shape, the paradigm of which assumed a complete “hands off nature”, and zoos were often viewed as concentration camps for animals. Darrell suffered a lot of blood while he was proving that zoos help preserve endangered species of fauna and achieve their stable reproduction.
33. There were also pages in Gerald Durrell's biography that he, apparently, would have willingly burned himself. For example, once in South America he was trying to catch a baby hippopotamus. This occupation is difficult and dangerous, since they do not walk alone, and the parents of the hippopotamus, when they see their offspring being caught, become extremely dangerous and angry. The only way out was to kill two adult hippopotamuses, so that later they could catch their baby without interference. Reluctantly, Darrell agreed to this, he really needed “big animals” for zoos. The case ended unsuccessfully for all those involved. Having killed the female hippopotamus and driven away the male, Darrell discovered that the captured baby had just been swallowed by a hungry alligator. Finita. This incident left a serious imprint on him. Firstly, Darrell was silent during this episode without inserting any of his text. Secondly, from that moment on, he, who had previously hunted with interest and was a good shooter, completely stopped destroying fauna with his own hands.
34. Many noted the extraordinary similarity between the two Darrells - Lawrence (Larry) and Gerald (Jerry). They were even similar in appearance, both were short, thick-set, with an extremely attractive disposition, ironic, a little bilious, both excellent storytellers, both writers, both could not stand England. The third brother, Leslie, was also very similar to them in terms of appearance, but in other respects...
Larry, Jackie, Gerald, Chumlee
35. By the way, to the older brother, now considered a classic English literature twentieth century in a more “serious” genre, popular recognition came a little later than to the younger one, despite the fact that he began to practice on the literary front much earlier, and, accordingly, to publish too.
36. In 1957, when the Queen herself presented Lawrence Durrell with an award for Bitter Lemons, his mother was unable to attend. highest degree ceremonial event - " she had nothing to wear and, besides, she had to look after the chimpanzees».
Gerald, mom, Margot, Larry.
37. I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that Gerald Durrell was a ladies’ man or, to be completely honest, a womanizer. Since his youth, he had honed his manner of dealing with women and was recognized by many as extremely attractive. However, as for me, his manner of flirting was not distinguished by its frivolity; quite the contrary, it often consisted of frivolous hints and vulgar jokes. And even twenty years later, the director who filmed Darrell for a series of programs noted: “ His jokes were so salty that they could not be aired even at the latest time».
38. The story of marrying Jackie (Jacqueline) was also not easy. Gerald, who always preferred well-built blondes, suddenly changed his taste when he one day met the hotel owner’s daughter, young and dark-haired Jackie. Their romance developed in a very unusual way, since Jackie initially developed the most sincere antipathy for the young (at that time) trapper. Natural charm over time helped Darrell gain her consent to marriage. But even this did not work for her father - having married against her father’s will, Jackie never saw him again. By the way, sometimes there is a latent feeling that in terms of the number of cockroaches in her head, she could give odds to her husband’s entomological collection. “I decided never to have children - the life of an ordinary housewife is not for me.”
Jackie Darrell
39. However, everything was not very clear about the children of Gerald Darrell and his wife. He himself did not strive to have children and, again, according to his wife, in some ways was a true childfree. On the other hand, Jackie was pregnant twice and twice her pregnancies unfortunately ended in miscarriage. By the way, due to their poor financial condition, Gerald and Jackie lived for a long time in the same boarding house of sister Margot.
Gerald and Jackie Darrell.
40. Darrell also had ill-wishers from among his colleagues. Many recognized zoologists, including academically educated gentlemen, were extremely jealous of the successes of his expeditions - the impudent boy managed, by sheer luck, as they believed, to take possession of extremely rare and valuable specimens of fauna. So it should not be surprising that the amount of venom poured on Darrell in scientific publications and newspapers periodically exceeded the amount of venom contained in all African snakes combined if someone squeezed them dry. He was blamed for his complete lack of specialized education, for his barbaric methods, for his lack of theoretical knowledge, for his arrogance and self-confidence, etc. One of Durrell's most influential and authoritative opponents was George Cansdale, director of the London Zoo. However, he always had a thousand times more fans.
41. Another sad note. The chimpanzee Chumley, who became Darrell's favorite and was brought by him to an English zoo, did not live long on Pudding Island. After a few years, imprisonment began to weigh heavily on him and he escaped twice, and at times his temper completely deteriorated. After the second time, when he began to rampage on the street, breaking into locked cars, zoo workers were forced to shoot the monkey, considering it dangerous to people. By the way, the director of the zoo himself ordered this to be done, yes, that same George Cansdale, who devoted a lot of energy to devastating criticism of Darrell and was considered his sworn enemy.
Since you don’t want to fill the post entirely with photographs, you can look at the very interesting collection “From the life of the Durrells in their natural habitat” -