<DIV>?All of these stories are true,” states Gerald Durrell in the preface to this newest collection of his fiction, but he quickly amends, ?To be strictly accurate, some are true, some have a kernel of truth and a shell of embroidery.”<BR><BR>Ranging from the equator to the southern coast of England, <I>Marrying off Mother and Other Stories</I> covers a wonderfully eccentric cast of characters. Durrell returns to his Corfu childhood and reintroduces the members of the Durrell clan familiar from <I>My Family and Other Animals</I>. He also shares his picnic with a fragrant sow and prize truffler named Esmeralda in the Perigord; charms an aging belle in Memphis; stays with an alcoholic hangman in Paraguay; delivers a pornographic parrot to a clergyman in London; and dines with a gambling nun in Monte Carlo.<BR><BR>A world-famous conservationist and humorist, Gerald Durrell shares eight irresistible stories that beg to be retold over and over again. As you’ll see in <I>Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories</I>, Durrell’s wit is on-point and as said in the San Francisco Chronicle, ?The old Durrell charm is still there.”<BR></DIV>