>Tullyvallin at 12:46, 8 May 2021

2021-05-08T12:46:19Z

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{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name = 
| image = 
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| caption =
| birth_name = Louisa Florence Dixie
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|01|16|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Roorkee]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1964|01|24|1886|01|16|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Bournemouth]], England
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Lawrence Samuel Durrell]]|1910|1928|end=d}}
| children = [[Lawrence Durrell|Lawrence]], [[Margaret Durrell|Margaret]], [[Leslie Durrell|Leslie]], [[Gerald Durrell|Gerald]]
| family = Dixie, [[Durrell family|Durrell]]
}}
'''Louisa Florence Durrell''' (née '''Dixie'''; 16 January 1886 – 24 January 1964), was an [[Anglo-Irish]] woman born in [[India]] during the [[British Raj]]. She was the mother of [[Lawrence Durrell|Lawrence]] and [[Gerald Durrell]]. She was featured in Gerald Durrell's autobiographical [[Corfu trilogy]], which tells about the Durrells' years in [[Corfu]] from 1935 to 1939 in a somewhat fictionalized way.

==Biography==
Louisa Florence Dixie was born in 1886 to an [[Anglo-Irish]] [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant]] family in [[Roorkee]], [[India]], where her family were colonials in the years of the British Raj. Her father, George Dixie, was the head clerk and accountant of the Ganges Canal Foundry.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography (Text Only)|last=Botting|first=Douglas|date=2000|publisher=Harper Collins Publishers|isbn=0006387306|location=London|pages=4}}</ref>

In India, she met and married [[Lawrence Samuel Durrell]], an English engineer also born in India. Together, they travelled all over India for Lawrence's engineering work.

They had three sons and two daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Their second child, Margery Ruth, was born in November 1915 and died from [[diphtheria]] in April 1916.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Margery Ruth Durrell (1915-1916) - Find A Grave...|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199122646/margery-ruth-durrell|access-date=2020-09-09|website=www.findagrave.com|language=en}}</ref> The surviving children were [[Lawrence Durrell|Lawrence]] (Larry), [[Durrell family|Leslie]], [[Margaret Durrell|Margaret]] (Margo), and [[Gerald Durrell|Gerald]] (Gerry). Louisa was described as an anxious mother, shunning social contact just to be with her children during their formative years.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Js5wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT136&dq=Louisa+Durrell#q=Louisa%20Durrell|title=A Psychoanalytic Study of Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet: Exile and Return|last=Alfandary|first=Rony|date=2018-09-27|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780429782398|language=en}}</ref>

Louisa was actively interested in [[spiritualism]] and [[cookery]]. She was unusual for mingling with [[India]]ns, more than many colonials, to learn of local spirits and cuisine. She did not conform to the views of her time regarding the segregation of social groups.

Her husband died of a brain tumour in 1928 in [[Dalhousie, India]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World|last=Lillios|first=Anna|date=2004|publisher=Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp.|isbn=1575910764|location=Danvers, MA|pages=38}}</ref> when she was 42, and Louisa decided to move her family to England. She left India with her family under dire circumstances.<ref name=":0" /> They settled in [[Bournemouth]] in 1932.<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Douglas Botting|last=Botting|first=Douglas| title=Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography|publisher=HarperCollins|year=1999|isbn=0-00-255660-X}}</ref> She bought a house in the area and named it Dixie Lodge.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18-CAb0G90QC&pg=PT72&dq=Louisa+Durrell#q=Louisa%20Durrell|title=Amateurs In Eden: The Story of a Bohemian Marriage: Nancy and Lawrence Durrell|last=Hodgkin|first=Joanna|date=2012-02-09|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=9780748131099|language=en}}</ref>

She moved again in 1935 with her eldest son, Lawrence, and his new wife, Nancy, to the island of [[Corfu#Interwar period|Corfu]], taking her other children with her. Her youngest son, Gerald, wrote memoirs about this formative period of his childhood on Corfu, where flora and fauna abounded. He portrayed his mother as the family's well-meaning but slightly eccentric matriarch in what is known as the Corfu trilogy: ''[[My Family and Other Animals]]'' (1956), ''[[Birds, Beasts and Relatives]]'' (1969), and ''[[The Garden of the Gods]]'' (1978).

In June 1939, before the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], Louisa returned to England. After the war, she lived for periods with her daughter Margaret, who had a boarding house in [[Bournemouth]], as well as with Gerald at his home at the [[Durrell Wildlife Park|Jersey Zoo]], founded with the proceeds from his books.

Louisa died in Bournemouth in 1964 at the age of 78.

==Representation in other media==
Gerald Durrell's trilogy has been adapted several times for British TV and radio series. Louisa was portrayed by [[Hannah Gordon]] in the 1987 [[BBC]] TV series ''[[My Family and Other Animals (TV series)|My Family and Other Animals]]'', by [[Imelda Staunton]] in the 2005 BBC adaptation, by [[Celia Imrie]] in the 2010 two-part BBC Radio drama, and by [[Keeley Hawes]] in the 2016–2019 ITV drama ''[[The Durrells]]''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Gerald Durrell}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durrell, Louisa Florence}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:Gerald Durrell]]
[[Category:People from Haridwar]]

Louisa Durrell - Revision history

>Tullyvallin at 12:46, 8 May 2021