Books: Family + Fauna X 2

BIRDS, BEASTS AND RELATIVES by Gerald Durrell. 248 pages. Viking. $5.95.

Naturalist Gerald Durrell's boyhood memoir, My Family and Other Animals, delighted nearly everyone except his family. The book started as a report on the beginning of young Gerald's lifelong fascination with the animal world. The family, however, kept getting in the way. "It was only with the greatest difficulty," Durrell confessed, "and by exercising considerable cunning, that I managed to retain a few pages here and there which I could devote exclusively to animals." Then, when it was finished, his relatives ragged him for leaving out all the really funny family...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!