Birds, Beasts and Relatives (Corfu Trilogy #2)

by Gerald Durrell

‘No, no,’ said Theodore, endeavouring to correct Mother’s unscientific approach to the problem. ‘In fact, it is considered quite a good thing for the bride to be pregnant. It proves her … um … fecundity.’

A scientific perspective

We were now, under the quiet, bland eye of the moon, christened Corfiotes. The night was beautiful, and tomorrow, we knew, another tiger-golden day lay ahead of us. It was as though England had never really existed.

love

The myrtle forests were full of mantises some three inches long, with vivid green wings. They would sway through the myrtle branches on their slender legs, their wickedly barbed front arms held up in an attitude of hypocritical prayer, their little pointed faces with their bulbous straw-coloured eyes turning this way and that, missing nothing, like angular, embittered spinsters at a cocktail party.

what a great image

I knew I could get the veranda cleaned up before the family got back from town, but in my excitement with my new acquisition, I had completely overlooked the fact that Leslie was convalescing in the drawing-room. The scent of the turtle’s interior, so pungent that it seemed almost solid, floated in through the French windows and enveloped the couch on which he lay. My first intimation of this catastrophe was a blood-curdling roar from inside the drawing-room.

Lol - I am dying of laughter at this whole part

‘Drink, kyrié,’ he said. ‘Take no notice of us. She lives for food, drink, and fighting, and it is my job to provide all three.’

‘I’m a bit too old to have babies,’ said Captain Creech. The padre’s wife choked. ‘But,’ he went on with satisfaction, ‘I have a lot of fun trying.’ The tea-party was not a success.

Lol

‘I am not having it,’ said Larry throatily. ‘I am not having it. Birds and dogs and hedgehogs all over the house and now a bear. What does he think this is, for Christ’s sake? A bloody Roman arena?’ ‘Gerry, dear, do be careful,’ said Mother quaveringly. ‘It looks rather fierce.’ ‘It will kill us all,’ quavered Margo with conviction.

Cracking me up. The funniest parts of this book are Gerry going crazy with his animals

The sea played on the beach as though it were an instrument. I lay and dozed for a time in the warm shallows and then, feeling heavy with sleep, I made my way back into the olive groves. Everyone lay about disjointedly, sleeping round the ruins of our meal. It looked like the aftermath of some terrible battle. I curled up like a dormouse in the protective roots of a great olive and drifted off to sleep myself.

sounds relaxing