Gerald Durrell"s account of his childhood in Corfu, My family and other animals, was first published in 1956, and has been hugely popular over the years, remaining in print today. Its popularity must rest in part on Durrell"s lively and witty story-telling skills, but more fundamentally because the book evokes an idyllic childhood. The idyll consists of the young Gerald growing up within an immensely lively family, living...