So, what do you think of it so far? The Durrells, I mean.
If you live in the UK, Sunday evenings on the telly have just got a whole lot gentler. The always-watchable Keeley Hawes heads the cast in a series based on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy.
And it's pretty sublime. The warmth and light of Corfu shines through in this very enjoyable series. It's a bit like The Darling Buds of May only set in Greece. Just the thing for a Sunday evening.
It's got me hankering after Corfu, where I lived for a year in 2012-2013. I do pop back there from time to time and I know how lucky I am to have a foot in beautiful West Dorset and another in the jewel of the Ionian (although I have to be careful not to do the splits).
Corfu
Dorset
Just like the Durrells, we left rainy Dorset, pretty much on a whim, for life on a Greek island. Who wouldn't want to up sticks and escape the drudgery of the day job? Especially to Greece.
Dorset
Corfu
But my grown-up gap year was not what I expected. I was homesick beyond belief. By the end of it, I had learned a lot - not much in the way of the language, it's true, but a great deal about myself. Most of all, I absorbed the power of philoxenia, that extraordinary Greek kindness which is more than just hospitality, it's true generosity of spirit and part of the greater concept of philitimo.
The following video sums it up beautifully. (Yes, I know it's from Crete, but you get the picture.)
I'll certainly watch for the new series - it will appear here next year. I'll watch for your book too - as soon as it is out in paperback please let us know.
Very much looking forward to the book Maddie. Funnily enough, it was Keeley Hawes' presence that put me off watching The Durrells. Just goes to show you can't please all the people, all the time!!!! Loved the books though!!!! Lucy x
The longer I spend in Lush Places, my enchanted village home in Dorset, the more I realise that there is some kind of magic at work here. Serendipitous things seem to happen all the time and the latest one has unearthed something of a local treasure – A CD featuring fourteen comedy songs by traditional singers and recorded in the village in the mid-1980s. The Wooden Leg’d Parson was rediscovered by folk legend Martin Carthy, who passed it on to record producer Simon Emmerson from The Imagined Village, who lives here in Lush Places. Now, Simon has a box of them to sell, at £10 a time. If you know him, get in touch with him. If you don’t, get in touch with me and I’ll send you one. Doug and Sam Phillips Listening to the laughs in the pub as Doug and Sam Phillips entertained the locals with comedy songs, it feels like you’re right there with them. Those Dorset dialects are magnificent. Some delightful times and tunes with people no longer with us. There’s the lovely, w...
Thanks to my mother, I have a pretty good idea who's sitting up there in the branches of my family tree. Up until now, there's been nobody famous, although she discovered I am directly descended from a man who fought in the last battle on English soil, the Monmouth Rebellion, in 1685. I'm rather proud of that, and the fact that he was on the ill-fated Rebel side. It's something I plan to explore further when I have more time. Mr Grigg thinks he has a link to Archie Leach, better known as that suave and most debonair of English-born actors, Cary Grant . He knows this because he found a Leach in his family tree who lived in Bristol, which was where Archie was born. I got very excited and suggested it could be the same family as Archie's. When Mr Grigg has more time, he's going to look into it further. In the meantime, I had nobody famous in my tree and always felt a little bit of a Billy No-Mates. And then, this week, I had a message via my Maddie Gri...
I'll certainly watch for the new series - it will appear here next year.
ReplyDeleteI'll watch for your book too - as soon as it is out in paperback please let us know.
Very much looking forward to the book Maddie. Funnily enough, it was Keeley Hawes' presence that put me off watching The Durrells. Just goes to show you can't please all the people, all the time!!!! Loved the books though!!!! Lucy x
ReplyDeleteCorfu - such a beautiful island and such warm people. Would so love to go back.
ReplyDelete