![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Joy is at the heart of everything that Durrell wrote, but most especially it is at the heart of My Family and Other Animals. One day his magpies – the Magenpies – got loose and trashed Larry's room and all those pages full of deathless prose. Here the young Gerry kept owls and pigeons and tortoises, witnessed a battle between a praying mantis and a gecko – above, on, and finally in his bed. Here is a boy in paradise, surrounded by an eccentric loving family and by the wonderful beasts of the Mediterranean islands. My Family and Other Animals is the greatest expression of biophilia in literature. Everyone who has ever patted a dog or smelled a rose understands that. It was the great American scientist and science writer Edward O Wilson who coined the term biophilia: for the human affinity, the human need for non-human life. ![]()
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