Margo burst into the living room in a panic. "Come quickly!" she screamed. "Gigi is about to commit suicide."
We ran out. Gigi was perched on his window sill wearing only a piece of cloth. Mother straightened her glasses and looked up. "Gigi, my dear," she chirped, "it's not very wise to be there. Why don't you come down and eat?"
Gigi came down, but not in the way Mother meant. He took a cheerful step into the void and, accompanied by the terrified screams of Mother and Margo, fell towards the ground. He landed with a thud in the grapevine.
"My God!" he shouted. "Where am I?"

In 1978, Gerald Durrell returns with the final book of the Corfu Trilogy, "The Garden of the Gods." Having realized that "My Family and Other Animals" (1956), and "Birds, Beasts, and Relatives" (1969), were loved by a wider audience of all ages, far beyond the children and teenagers they were initially aimed at, he allows himself more freedom.
He culls memories from the exciting life of his eccentric family and their strange friends and adopts a bolder language that also appeals to adults.