The inspiration for the PBS Masterpiece series, The Durrells in Corfu: A naturalist's childhood adventures with animals-and humans-on a Greek island. For a passionate animal lover like young Gerald Durrell, the island in the Ionian Sea was a natural paradise, teeming with strange birds and beasts. As he writes ... "To me, this blue kingdom was a treasure house of strange beasts which I longed to collect and observe, and at first it was frustrating...

British naturalist Gerald Durrell, author of the Corfu Trilogy, shares more humorous reflections on a life spent among humans and animals. In My Family and Other Animals and its sequels, Gerald Durrell writes of his family's antics during their time on the Greek island of Corfu. In his later memoirs, he vividly describes his expeditions to other, faraway places. In Fillets of Plaice, he compiles a quintet of hilarious stories that touch on all of...