By Gerald Durrell

A Good Gray Yule Book Flood classic!

Favorite Quote: “ Half a mile or so from the villa rosa a fairly large conical hill, covered with grass and heather, and crowned with three tiny olive-groves, separated from each other by wide beds of myrtle. I called these three little groves the Cyclamen Woods, for in the right season the ground beneath the olive trees was flushed magenta and wine-red with the flowers of cyclamen that seemed to grow more thickly and more luxuriantly here than anywhere else in the countryside. ….. The Cyclamen Woods were an excellent place to spend an afternoon. Lying beneath the shade of the olive-trunks, you could look out over the valley, a mosaic of field, vineyards, and orchards, to where the sea shone between the olive-trunks, a thousand fiery sparkles running over it as it rubbed itself gently and languorously along the shore. The hilltop seemed to have its own breeze, albeit a baby one, for no matter how hot it was below in the valley, up in the three olive-groves the tiny wind played constantly, the leaves whispered and the drooping cyclamen flowers bowed to each other in endless greeting. It was an ideal spot in which to rest after a hectic lizard hunt….”

From the publisher: My Family and Other Animals is Gerald Durrell's hilarious account of five years in his childhood spent living with his family on the Greek island of Corfu. With snakes, scorpions, toads, owls, and geckos competing for space with one bookworm brother and another who's gun mad, as well as an obsessive sister, young Gerald has an awful lot of natural history to observe. This richly detailed, informative and riotously funny memoir of eccentric family life is a 20th century classic.

Dimesions: 6 × 4 inches

273 pages, Hardcover

Pairs well with Birds of Monhegan Chocolate Bar