If you’ve spent any time watching PBS or ITV lately, you probably think you know the Durrells of Corfu. You see a pluckily widowed mother, Louisa, trying to keep her four eccentric kids from setting the house on fire while living in a sun-drenched Greek villa. It’s charming. It’s idyllic. It makes you want to pack your bags and move to the Ionian Sea immediately.
But the real story? Honestly, it was way weirder.
Most people come to the Durrell family through Gerald Durrell’s classic book, My Family and Other Animals, or the various television adaptations. While those are great, they often gloss over the sheer chaos of what actually happened between 1935 and 1939. This wasn't just a quirky vacation. It was a radical, messy, and sometimes legally questionable experiment in living that changed literature and nature conservation forever.
How the Durrells of Corfu Actually Ended Up in Greece
It wasn't a whim. It was a desperate escape from the damp, grey misery of Bournemouth, England.
Louisa Durrell was struggling. She was a widow with a pension that didn't go far, and her eldest son, Lawrence (Larry), was a budding bohemian who absolutely loathed British "pudding-island" culture. Larry was the one who pushed them to leave. He’d been reading about the light and the cost of living in the Mediterranean. He basically told his mother that if they didn't leave, they’d all rot.
They arrived in 1935. At the time, Corfu wasn't a tourist hub. It was a rustic, deeply traditional island where donkeys were the primary mode of transport and electricity was a luxury most people couldn't imagine. The family moved through several houses—the Strawberry-Pink Villa, the Daffodil-Yellow Villa, and the famous Snow-White Villa.
Larry Wasn't Just the Annoying Older Brother
In the TV shows, Larry is often portrayed as a sarcastic, failed writer who just lounges around in a silk robe. In reality, Lawrence Durrell was becoming one of the most important avant-garde writers of the 20th century while living on the island.
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While Gerald was out catching snakes, Larry was hosting literary titans. Henry Miller, the famous American author of Tropic of Cancer, actually came to stay with them in 1939. Imagine that house for a second. You have a world-famous novelist, a depressed but brilliant widow, a gun-obsessed teenager (Leslie), a fashion-obsessed girl (Margo), and a kid filling the bathtubs with scorpions.
It wasn't always sunny. Larry was actually married during much of this time. His wife, Nancy Myers, is often completely written out of the TV adaptations to keep the focus on the "family" unit, but she was a core part of the Corfu years. They eventually moved to a separate house at Kalami, known as the White House, which you can still visit today.
The Zoo in the Living Room
Gerald Durrell was only ten years old when they arrived. Most kids that age are playing with sticks; Gerry was dissecting them.
His obsession with the Durrells of Corfu ecosystem was legendary among the locals. He befriended a man named Theodore Stephanides, a polymath who was a doctor, poet, and scientist. Theodore became Gerry’s mentor, teaching him how to properly observe the natural world. This wasn't just a hobby. It was the foundation for the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust.
Gerry’s bedroom was a nightmare for anyone with a phobia. He kept:
- Water snakes in the bath.
- Owls in the attic.
- Magpies that tore up Larry’s manuscripts.
- A collection of tortoises that wandered the garden like miniature tanks.
The local Greeks thought he was "loony," but they loved him. They called him "Kyrios Gerry" and brought him injured animals or strange insects they found in the olive groves.
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Margo and Leslie: The "Forgotten" Durrells
We talk a lot about the famous writers, Larry and Gerry, but Margo and Leslie were arguably the ones who lived the most "Corfu" lives.
Margo was famously prone to sunbathing in bikinis that scandalized the local villagers. She once even tried to start a boarding house on the island, though it didn't exactly go to plan. Leslie, on the other hand, spent his time hunting. He was obsessed with guns and boats, often disappearing into the hills to hunt woodcock or hanging out with the local fishermen.
Leslie’s life was perhaps the most tragic after they left the island. While Larry became a literary star and Gerry became a world-renowned conservationist, Leslie struggled to find his footing back in England, moving through various failed business ventures. The Corfu years were, for him, a peak he could never quite replicate.
Why They Had to Leave (and Why It Matters)
The dream ended in 1939.
The clouds of World War II were gathering over Europe. The British Consulate was essentially ordering citizens to get out while they still could. The family scattered. Louisa, Gerry, and Leslie went back to England. Larry and Nancy fled to Egypt.
This break is what makes the Durrells of Corfu story so poignant. It was a lost Eden. When Gerry wrote My Family and Other Animals twenty years later, he was writing about a world that had been physically and culturally shattered by the war. The Corfu he described—the one without high-rise hotels or souvenir shops—was gone.
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Visiting the Durrell Legacy Today
If you go to Corfu now, you can still find traces of them. The "White House" in Kalami is a restaurant and guesthouse. You can sit on the same terrace where Larry and Henry Miller drank local wine and argued about art.
However, don't expect the quiet wilderness Gerry described. The island is busy. But if you head into the interior—away from the beach bars—the olive groves still smell the same. The cicadas are still deafening.
What most people get wrong about the Durrells:
They weren't rich. They were "shabby genteel." They were often broke, relying on Louisa’s meager widow's pension and Larry’s small advances. Their survival on the island was a mix of luck, the low cost of living at the time, and the extreme generosity of the Corfiot people, like their friend and taxi driver, Spiro "Americanos" Hakiaiopoulos.
How to Experience the "Real" Durrell Life
If you want to understand the magic they found, you have to look past the shiny TV production.
- Read the books in order. Start with My Family and Other Animals, but then read Larry’s Prospero’s Cell. It’s much more poetic and gives a better sense of the island's history and soul.
- Visit in the off-season. Go in May or late September. The light is softer, the crowds are gone, and you can actually hear the wildlife Gerry loved so much.
- Explore the North. Most of the Durrell sites are in the northern part of the island. Rent a small boat in Kalami or Agni. Seeing the coastline from the water is exactly how they experienced it.
- Look for Theodore’s influence. Theodore Stephanides wrote a book called Island Trails. It’s harder to find but offers a scientific, deeply respectful look at the island's ecology that balances out Gerry’s more comedic tales.
The Durrells of Corfu left us a blueprint for a life lived with curiosity. They didn't fit in back home, so they built a home where they could be their strangest selves. That’s the real reason we’re still talking about them nearly a century later. They reminds us that sometimes, the best thing you can do for your family is to pack up and head toward the sun, even if you have no idea what you’re doing.
To truly follow in their footsteps, skip the guided "Durrell Tours" and just get lost in an olive grove with a sketchbook or a pair of binoculars. That is where the real spirit of the family still lives.
Actionable Next Steps for Fans:
- Source the "Corfu Trilogy": Don't just stop at the first book. Read Birds, Beasts, and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods to get the full scope of Gerry's five-year adventure.
- Support the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust: Gerry’s work didn't end in Greece. His zoo in Jersey is a world leader in saving species from extinction.
- Watch the 1987 BBC Mini-series: If you’ve only seen the recent ITV version, track down the older one. It’s a bit more "rough around the edges" and captures the atmosphere of the books more accurately.