Mom Darrell and her crazy family. How to raise a genius or a criminal

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many from childhood love books by Gerald Durrell, dedicated to his childhood and adolescence, such as "My Family and Other Animals" or "Halibut Fillet". The Darrells appear in them as a kind, but very friendly and loving family, which is wisely led by the best mother in the world. In fact, of course, Gerald described his childhood more biased than accurate. The troubled Durrell family was far from ideal, and the mother's ways of raising children could provide either geniuses or criminals. In general, it turned out both.

Louise Darrell, exemplary mother and wife

Darrell's mom, Louise, was born in India to an Irish Protestant family. When Lawrence Darrell met her, she was a shy, even timid girl, but with a wonderful sense of humor. Lawrence was only a student, but Louise undoubtedly married him and did not regret it. Daddy Darrell became an exemplary Edwardian husband.

First of all, he insisted that Louise should not think about business at all, neither domestic nor financial. He dealt with the latter, and the first were to be dealt with by the Indian servants - Louise, on the other hand, had to maintain the dignity of a white lady.

In fact, when her husband did not see, Louise could calmly wash the floors, chase the ghost around the garden, which the servants allegedly saw (she really wanted to meet a real ghost!) And changed the diapers for the children. Perhaps Lawrence sometimes suspected that his wife was not such a sissy, because when she happened to accompany her husband on business trips, she did not complain about the inconvenience, like the wives of other engineers who came from England. Yes, Daddy Darrell was an engineer.

Louise was crazy about her children. She fussed over them all the time. Moreover, Larry and Leslie, her eldest sons, were often sick. Louise's first daughter died very young, and Darrell's mother always treated children with mild anxiety.

The children paid their mother with the same deep affection, except, alas, the firstborn, Larry. When he was eleven years old, his parents sent him to study in England. The country of his ancestors turned out to be completely alien to Larry, he suffered from the climate, from people, and from the unusual organization of life, and for a long time could not forgive his mother for this “exile”.

Jerry in India felt like paradise. He was constantly nursed and caressed, it was always warm around him, and it was in India that he first saw the zoo. Animals just shocked the boy, they became his love for life. But when he was only three, he was expelled from paradise. Not an angel with a sword, of course, but circumstances. Daddy Darrell died, and the family had to travel to Britain to deal with the inheritance and finances.

Country of Puddings

Every little Englishman, Scotsman or Irishman in India was brought up in the belief that his homeland, above all, was in Britain. But upon arriving, the Darrells, like Larry, found themselves almost incompatible with their homeland. This dislike for Britain - as a place to live, and not a country, of course - they carried through their whole lives. Greece, Kenya, France - at the first opportunity the Durrells chose any place warmer and sunnier than England. For Britain, they came up with various unflattering nicknames, for example, Country of Puddings.

All children in turn suffered from runny nose, bronchitis, laryngitis and otitis media. Miss Durrell herself was severely depressed. Her stereotypically Irish drinking has worsened. It should be understood, however, that the alcoholism of Darrell's mother, which is now remembered by almost everyone who writes about the childhood of the Darrells, has nothing to do with how the drunken mother is usually shown in books and movies. She remained a wonderful mother, made sure that the children had everything they needed, cooked and always found the time and word for comfort and advice.

All mom's advice, as Gerald later recalled, ended with a parting word like: "But, of course, it's up to you to choose what to do." Louise almost never limited her children. Everyone from an early age had the right to an opinion and to express it.

More odd than alcoholism is Mrs. Durrell's constant encounters with ghosts. From the ghost of her husband to complete strangers. Moreover, Louise did not show any symptoms of a mental disorder, and was not even necessarily drunk at that moment.

For Jerry, the English school presented a much bigger problem than the unusual climate and mother's love for drinking. Severe discipline, official spirit, cramming instead of fascinating stories turned out to be so incompatible with little Gerald Durrell that he acquired a strong dislike for any school in general, and the teachers, as one, held him for a badly educated, narrow-minded and lazy child. Tell them that they see before them a future honorary academician of many universities in the world and a popular writer, none of them would be able to believe.

Leslie grew up a sullen, withdrawn, rude teenager. He didn’t like him and didn’t know how to like him, the only person who truly loved him and always tried to support him was his mother. Perhaps Leslie was heavily affected by the death of her father and the move to a gloomy - after India - cold country. Be that as it may, both the position and behavior of Leslie in Gerald Durrell's books about childhood are greatly smoothed out. In the family, he was always a black sheep. Larry frankly and very viciously mocked him, Margot and Jerry remembered him only when he gave cause for complaints.

Moving to Corfu, which Larry once started, was a real salvation both for the whole family and for Gerald Durrell personally. Otherwise, he, perhaps, could become a sullen, self-contained and unpleasant type in communication. Humanity would have lost a lot if it had not been for Gerald Corfu as a child.

The Darrells in Greece: Legendary Time

The happy few years in Greece, which we all seem to represent so vividly thanks to Gerald's talent as a writer, looked a little different from the books. For example, life in a hotel upon arrival was not at all a short episode. The Darrells had problems due to the fact that the Greek bank did not immediately accept and issue their money from England. For a long time they could not move anywhere, and literally ate what they could get for free - one might say, they lived by gathering and hunting.

Larry did not live with his entire family at all. When the Darrells arrived in Corfu, he was over twenty years old. He was married to a girl named Nancy and they very quickly began renting a separate house with her. Larry and Nancy often visited Darrell's mom and the whole family - especially since Larry and Jerry, two future famous writers, were tied by friendship, despite the serious age difference. Jerry still seemed incapable of learning, which made Mom very sad. While she was trying to find a teacher who could put into Jerry's head all the knowledge that boys from a good English family should have, Larry wrote out books for his brother. Largely thanks to his brother, Jerry acquired the writing style that we know, and the ability to organize information that previously seemed inaccessible to him by nature.

It is a pity that Nancy was not included in Darrell's books - she herself has the most enthusiastic memories of this family. At first glance, the Durrell house was in complete anarchy. They shouted at each other and at each other. Every room, including the living room, was littered with things. The house was full of animals that Jerry brought into the house. Jerry himself, as glorious as Christopher Robin, knew how to sleep with any noise, he was so used to talking. Nancy Darrells seemed very free and very friendly. And so it was, the bodies of their degree of freedom would have confused many of our contemporaries.

Under Jerry, various aspects of sex life were calmly discussed. Perhaps that is why the grown-up Gerald Durrell courted women in the style of Lieutenant Rzhevsky from Russian jokes. From an early age he also tried alcohol - and then, like his mother, suffered from alcoholism. In the same way, like his mother, later, even when drunk, he retained complacency, a sense of humor and charm as adults.

Margot sunbathed to the delight of the whole island in an open swimsuit - the effect was comparable to the appearance of a topless girl on a city beach near Moscow. Leslie staggered wherever he wanted and how he wanted, got acquainted with criminals, drank and shot endlessly.

If you add here Larry's eccentric, sexually unbridled, almost universal drinking friends, who now and then appear with him in the house of Darrell's mother, one can only be surprised that only one of Louise's four children, Leslie, grew up as a fraudster. As an adult, he smoked a lot, and the family tried to make amends for his misdeeds. Margot grew up to be as frivolous a woman as she was a girl. She tried to open a boarding house, went broke and went into the maids. Quite an ordinary biography. Gerald and Lawrence, as we now know, became world famous. All his life Gerald loved his teacher, the famous Greek scientist and poet Theodore Stephanides, and all his life he was friendly with him.

Three happy children out of four, taking into account the death of their father, departure from their homeland - their real homeland, India - and the Second World War. Looks like Louise Darrell knew something about raising children. Although, of course, the idle gossips learned only one thing: Darrell's mother loved to drink.

However, some people are counting and Astrid Lindgren's sins, such as propaganda of suicide and disrespect for fathersthat seem to be full of her books.