Margaret Isabel Mabel "Margo" Durrell (4 May 1919 – 16 January 2007) was the younger sister of novelist

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pa ...

and elder sister of naturalist, author, and TV presenter

Gerald Durrell Gerald Malcolm Durrell Order of the British Empire, OBE (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservation movement, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British Ind ...

, who lampoons her character in his Corfu trilogy of novels: ''

My Family and Other Animals ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956) is an autobiography, autobiographical book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells in an exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised way of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and wid ...

'', '' Birds, Beasts, and Relatives'', and ''

The Garden of the Gods ''The Garden of the Gods'' (American title: ''Fauna and Family'') is a 1978 autobiographical book by British naturalist and author Gerald Durrell (1925–1995). It is the third book in his autobiographical Corfu trilogy, following ''My Family ...

''. She wrote a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

, ''Whatever Happened to Margo?'', giving a humorous account of her experiences as a Bournemouth landlady in the late 1940s. It includes details about the lives of her family, particularly Leslie, Gerald, and her mother

Louisa Durrell Louisa Florence Durrell (; 16 January 1886 – 24 January 1964), was a British woman born in India during the British Raj. She was the mother of Lawrence, Leslie, Margo and Gerry Durrell. She was featured in Gerald Durrell's autobiographi ...

following their time on Corfu. The manuscript was apparently written in the 1960s and was discovered in the attic by a granddaughter nearly 35 years later. It was published in 1995.

Early life

Durrell was born in

Kurseong Kurseong (, ) is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throu ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

, in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

and brought up in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 1935, along with her brothers Gerald and

Leslie Leslie may refer to: * Leslie (name), a name and list of people with the given name or surname, including fictional characters Families * Clan Leslie, a Scottish clan with the motto "grip fast" * Leslie (Russian nobility), a Russian noble family ...

, she accompanied her mother to a new home on

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

, following her eldest brother, Lawrence, who had moved there a few months earlier with his first wife, Nancy Myers. Margo's mother, with Gerald and Leslie, returned to England by 1939 with the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but Margo decided that her real home was on Corfu and remained on the island, sharing a

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

cottage with some local friends.

Marriages and wartime

She met Jack Breeze, the chief

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

of an

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

, later the same year. At the time, Imperial Airways used Corfu as a

waypoint A waypoint is a point or place on a route or line of travel, a stopping point, an intermediate point, or point at which course is changed, the first use of the term tracing to 1880. In modern terms, it most often refers to coordinates which spe ...

between

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and England. He convinced her of the dangers of staying on Corfu, so, after

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

, she left on one of the last Imperial Airways flights to leave the island to rejoin her family in

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

. She married Breeze in early 1940, and they moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

when the airline posted him there later in the year. During the war years, they eventually moved to

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

and then

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, where she gave birth to their first child, Gerry, in an Italian

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

Caesarean section Caesarean section, also known as C-section, cesarean, or caesarean delivery, is the Surgery, surgical procedure by which one or more babies are Childbirth, delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen. It is often performed because va ...

without

anesthetic An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into t ...

. They lived in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

towards the end of the war. After the war ended, they moved back to

, where they had their second son, Nicholas.

Boarding house and zoo

Durrell divorced her husband and, in 1947, purchased a large property across the street from her mother's house in Bournemouth, turning it into a

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

. Gerald Durrell's core collection for his zoo was initially housed in the back garden and garage. Later, Margo had a short-lived marriage with musician Malcolm "Mac" Duncan. She was still enamoured with Greece, so she applied for a job on a Greek cruise ship travelling to the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

that she saw advertised in a newspaper.Margaret Durrell Remembers, in ''Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World'', edited by Anna Lilios

Death

Margaret Durrell died at age 87 on 16 January 2007.

Bibliography

* ''Whatever Happened to Margo?'' (1996, )

Portrayals

* In the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

10-part TV series ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1987), Margo was played by Sarah-Jane Holm. * In the film ''My Family and Other Animals'' (2005), Margo was played by Tamzin Merchant. * In the ITV 4-season TV series ''

The Durrells ''The Durrells'' (known in North America as ''The Durrells in Corfu'') is a British comedy-drama television series loosely based on Gerald Durrell's three autobiographical books about his family's four years (1935–1939) on the Greek island of ...

'' (2016–2019), Margo was played by

Daisy Waterstone Daisy Waterstone (born 13 June 1994) is a British actress, best known for playing Margo Durrell in the ITV family drama ''The Durrells''. Early life Waterstone was born on 13 June 1994 in Hammersmith, London, one of eight children of Sir Tim ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durrell, Margaret 1920 births 2007 deaths 20th-century English memoirists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English writers 21st-century English women

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

People from Darjeeling district British people in colonial India English expatriates in Greece British women in World War II