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[[Category:Gerald Durrell]] |
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Revision as of 22:45, 8 February 2011
Margaret ('Margo') Isabel Mabel Durrell (1920-2007) was the younger sister of novelist Lawrence Durrell, and elder sister of naturalist, author and TV presenter Gerald Durrell, whose Corfu Trilogy of novels — My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and Garden of the Gods — lampoons her character variously.
Born in British India, she was brought up in India, England and Corfu. She remained on Corfu following the departure of her mother and two brothers to England during World War II, sharing a peasant cottage with some local friends. In 1939, she met a British Royal Air Force pilot, Jack Breeze, stationed on Corfu and married him in 1940. She went with him to South Africa for the remainder of the war. When the war ended, Margo and her husband moved to Bournemouth.
After divorcing her first husband, she purchased a large house across the street from her mother's house, and after refurbishing it, she opened a boarding house there. Gerald Durrell's core collection for his zoo (now the Jersey Zoo) was initially housed on the premises of her boarding house. Durrell eventually remarried, her new husband's name being Malcolm Duncan.
Margaret Durrell was the author of Whatever Happened to Margo?, a reprise on her pet name used in the Corfu Trilogy. Written in the 1960s, it was discovered in the attic by a granddaughter nearly 40 years later and published in 1995.[1]
Margaret died aged 87 on 16 January, 2007.[2]
Bibliography
- Whatever Happened to Margo? (1996, ISBN 0-233-98917-X)
References
- ^ Robin Balke, Paperback reviews, The Independent, October 13, 1996
- ^ Jersey Evening Post, January 17, 2007