The most noticeable feature of the cover of this novel is the blue of the sea. I was in Corfu once, very briefly and more than 40 years ago but the colours, especially the turquoise of the sea, are still fresh in my memory.
Like the author and her main character I know My Family and Other Animals well. I have read it more than once and, many years ago, used it as a class reader in a secondary school. The characters are delightful, with surprising skills and quirks of personality and I expect the characters in this novel to be the same. The experience of the island highlights, solidifies and challenges the characters in equal measure.
Perhaps the young boy is a little too much of a version of Gerry? But I am sure I can get over that. His mother is certainly much more organised than mother in the Family version.
The overwhelming impression of colour, sensation and heat are captured well here. I want to go to the villas too to look at them and revisit the events in Durrell’s novel. They cannot be the same now as they were in 1930s but I am sure there are surprises, moments of gentle humour and romance ahead of any reader of this new novel.
I am sure the protagonist will change too, finding out about herself and what is going to be important to her in the future.
Like the author and her main character I know My Family and Other Animals well. I have read it more than once and, many years ago, used it as a class reader in a secondary school. The characters are delightful, with surprising skills and quirks of personality and I expect the characters in this novel to be the same. The experience of the island highlights, solidifies and challenges the characters in equal measure.
Perhaps the young boy is a little too much of a version of Gerry? But I am sure I can get over that. His mother is certainly much more organised than mother in the Family version.
The overwhelming impression of colour, sensation and heat are captured well here. I want to go to the villas too to look at them and revisit the events in Durrell’s novel. They cannot be the same now as they were in 1930s but I am sure there are surprises, moments of gentle humour and romance ahead of any reader of this new novel.
I am sure the protagonist will change too, finding out about herself and what is going to be important to her in the future.