Margaret ('Margo') Isabel Mabel Durrell was the younger sister of novelist Lawrence Durrell, and elder sister of naturalist, author and TV presenter Gerald Durrell. Born in British India, she was brought up in India, England and Corfu. Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy — My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and Garden of the Gods — lampoons her character variously.
Upon return from Corfu to England during World War II, she moved to Bournemouth and 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.
Margaret Durrell is the author of Whatever Happened to Margo?, a reprise on her pet name used in the Corfu Trilogy. Written in 1951, it was discovered in the attic by a grand-daughter nearly 40 years later and published in 1995. The book, however, has been criticised as lacking the fluency of prose of her two brothers, but is an addition to the growing body of work on the history of the Durrell family.
Bibliography
- Whatever Happened to Margo? (1996, ISBN 023398917X)