''The Garden of the Gods'' (American title: ''Fauna and Family'') (1978) by British naturalist and author

Gerald Durrell Gerald Malcolm Durrell, (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island ...

(1925–1995) is the third book in his autobiographical

Corfu trilogy The Corfu trilogy is the unofficial name for three autobiographical books by British naturalist Gerald Durrell, giving humorous, exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised stories of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed moth ...

, following ''

My Family and Other Animals ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956) is an 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 widowed mother on ...

'' and ''

Birds, Beasts, and Relatives ''Birds, Beasts, and Relatives'' (1969) by British naturalist Gerald Durrell is the second volume of his autobiographical Corfu trilogy, published from 1954 to 1978. The trilogy are memoirs about his childhood with his family between 1935 and ...

''.

Summary

This book is a humorous description of events that took place on the Greek island of

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

between the years 1935 and 1939. The youngest in his family, Gerald was ten years of age when his widowed mother,

Louisa Florence Durrell Louisa Florence Durrell (née Dixie; 16 January 1886 – 24 January 1964), was an Anglo-Irish woman born in India during the British Raj. She was the mother of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell. She was featured in Gerald Durrell's autobiographic ...

, moved the remaining family: son

Leslie Durrell The Durrell family was an English family, two of whose members were best-selling writers. It has been the subject of several autobiographies, the TV series ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1987), the television film ''My Family and Other Animals'' ( ...

, and daughter,

Margaret Durrell Margaret Isabel Mabel "Margo" Durrell (4 May 1919 — 16 January 2007) was the younger sister of novelist Lawrence Durrell and elder sister of naturalist, author, and TV presenter Gerald Durrell, who lampoons her character in his Corfu trilogy ...

(referred to in the book as "Margo"), from Bournemouth to join her eldest son

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 pare ...

and his wife Nancy on the island. The author describes his many exploits catching, and making pets of, the local fauna, and the subsequent effects on his family. They are featured as major characters, although he does not discuss Lawrence's wife Nancy. Other characters from the previous books also appear here, such as Spiro (their Greek friend and chauffeur),

Theodore Stephanides Theodore Philip Stephanides (Greek: Θεόδωρος Φίλιππος Στεφανίδης; 21 January 1896 – 13 April 1983) was a Greek- British doctor and polymath, best remembered as the friend and mentor of Gerald Durrell. He was also kno ...

(family friend, doctor, poet and naturalist), and Mr Kralefsky (Gerald's one-time tutor in Corfu). He describes the new and colourful characters of Lumis Bean, Harry Bunny, Prince Jeejeebuoy, and Count Rossignol. ''The Garden of the Gods'' was first published in 1978 by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, and simultaneously in the United States as ''Fauna and Family'' by Simon and Schuster (). {{DEFAULTSORT:Garden of the Gods 1978 non-fiction books British autobiographies Books by Gerald Durrell