- [first lines]
- Larry Durrell: Why do we put up with this bloody climate? I mean, look at us: Gerry can't speak,
- Gerald Durrell: Uh?
- Larry Durrell: Lesley can't hear.
- Leslie Durrell: What?
- Larry Durrell: Margot's got a face like a plate of red porridge.
- Margot Durrell: Shut up.
- Larry Durrell: Mother's beginning to look like an Irish washerwoman.
- Mother: I am not.
- Larry Durrell: It's August. We need sunshine.
- Mother: Yes, dear.
- Larry Durrell: Now, I've got a friend lives in Greece - Corfu. Says it's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go?
- Mother: I can't just go like that. We have a house here.
- Larry Durrell: We'll sell up.
- Mother: Don't be ridiculous, Lawrence. Gerry needs an education.
- Gerald Durrell: No, I'll be fine.
- Mother: We can't just up and leave; that would be madness.
- Theodore Stephanides: Who was it who said, "If you can control your family, you've gone terribly wrong somewhere"?
- Mother: Aristotle?
- Theodore Stephanides: No.
- Mother: Was it me?
- Theodore Stephanides: Yes.
- Mother: What a rude man!
- Margot Durrell: What?
- [Mother passes her the page]
- Margot Durrell: [reading] "Description passengers: one travelling circus and staff!"
- Mother: Odd thing to write. Some people really are peculiar.
- [last lines]
- Narrator: Back in England, Mother insisted I went to school, despite my protestation that I liked being half-educated. You were so much more surprised at everything when you were ignorant.