While we were eating our lunch today, we were channel surfing and came across a Bill Murray film, Larger than Life. Hmmmm I thought, when we’d watched about ten minutes of this film that’s kind of sweet but in a way that is really irritating. It just lacks a sparkle somehow.

I know this story though – the relative who bequeathed the elephant was different (father rather than uncle) and the setting (modern USA rather than the beginning of the 20th Century in England) but the basic plot was the same…..it’s ‘Rosy is my relative’ done rather badly I’m afraid.

I really object to this on a number of fronts, firstly my hero, Gerald Durrell, the author of ‘Rosy is my relative’ isn’t credited even with the idea, let alone the plot. (Well as far as I can see by doing some internet surfing on the film’s title.) Secondly, Rosy….or rather Vera as she’s called in the film has been ‘sanitised’ so instead of having a passion for beer, wine, cherry brandy and all sorts of alcohol, she’s eating sweets from the vast confectionary company Mars – M&Ms, Snickers, Twix and the rest of this corporate giant’s stable all receive a good push – nice ‘product placement’ guys – wonder how much that contributed to the cost of making the film?

Finally I know this probably makes me a really sad old git but I can’t help but think that anyone who spent a couple of hours watching the film would have had a significantly better two hours reading a few chapters of the book. It is completely side-splittingly funny. So much so, that I cried with laughter all the way through it. The film barely raised a smile from me.

Picking my precious copy of this wonderful book from my bookshelf, I browsed into the front of the book and a pencil mark from the seller told me I paid 75p for it and bought it second-hand. Now I actually think that was an incredible bargain. There are not many things that can give so much pleasure for such a small amount of money in the world but books really can be incredibly inexpensive for what they are in my view. Especially when you can buy second-hand for a few pence.

Gerald Durrell truly was a genius. ‘My Family and Other Animals’ was the first book I read by him when at school. I think I have read all of his other works and I believe ‘Rosy’ to be the only work of fiction among his catalogue. Anyone who has not read a Gerald Durrell out there – I urge you to beat a path to the door of your local second-hand bookseller and buy one of his books. I promise you a hilarious romp through his subject matter but with a strong ethical element too.

One of these days I will get to Jersey Zoo to see his life’s work in action.

Oh and no, Rosie the border collie wasn't named after Rosy the elephant....though if I'd named her I might well have done so, she already had the name, given to her by the stupid moron who thought she'd make a great pet for a man with four kids who lived in a high-rise flat in Battersea....she only lasted two weeks before they threw her on the scrapheap.

Oh and will I get sued for my comments about Larger than life? Who knows. As I said, no flinching!