The great author introduces his intentions here thus: 'What would you have been glad to know when you were on the spot? What would you feel sorry to have missed? A guide, yes, but a very personal one'. Fascinating, alluring and indispensable.
This 'companion to the landscape of Rhodes' emerged in 1953 and represents a beautifully composed account both of Durrell's postwar life on the island and of its landscape and history as a whole. Recommended.
A collection of four novels about a group of expatriates living in Egypt before and after the Second World War. Worth reading in this combined edition because the novels take the same events and describe them through four different perspectives, toying with notions of relativity. The acutely observed descriptions and Durrell's literary craftsmanship make this a modern classic. With a new introduction by Jan Morris.
First published in 1945 and subtitled 'A guide to the landscape and manners of Corfu', Durrell's book is in fact a marvellous fusion of memoir and travel writing. His considerable skills as a poet and novelist ensure that every page of this wonderful book is aglow with observation and nuance.
Durrell's 1957 Cypriot masterpiece begins innocently enough with the young writer's relocation to the island, including his hilarious ordeal in buying a house. Things soon turn more sinister as political tension escalates and he watches the imagined idyll of island life collapse. As brilliant today as it was upon first publication, this is essential reading.
Durrell's last book is a tribute to Provence, where he lived for 30 years. Part memoir, travelogue, history and poetry collection, it is a highly personal and unusual work in which he captures as brilliantly as ever the spirit of the landscape.