Lawrence Durrell

Spellbinding...A fine storyteller. - Guardian Superb...Quite simply a lovely work of art. - New York Times A group of English tourists have come ashore from their cruise ship to explore the island of Crete. This motley crew - including a painter, spiritualist, spinster, soldier, convalescent, and elderly couple - are holidaying to seek respite from a broken post-war world. But...

'A richly characteristic bouillabaisse by our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean, our old Prospero of the south.' - Richard Holmes Provence, Southern France. Celebrated writer and poet Lawrence Durrell made the Midi his home for more than thirty years: and in his final book, he shares his most evocative, dazzling memories of life as a local. A...

Lawrence Durrell was one of the best-selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century. The Alexandria Quartet is unquestionably his most admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Alexandria. In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani—setting...

Walking slowly home through the dark avenue of trees, tasting the brackish harbour wind, I remembered Justine saying harshly as she lay in bed: 'We use each other like axes to cut down the ones we really love'. Alexandria: the great winepress of love. Trams, palm trees, and watermelon stalls lie honey-bathed in sunlight; in darkened bedrooms, sweaty lovers unfurl....

'A magician.' - The Times Despite decades spent poetically chronicling Mediterranean life in Rhodes, Cyprus, and Corfu, celebrated travel writer Lawrence Durrell had never set foot on the largest island: Sicily. For years, his friend Martine begged him to visit her on this sun-kissed paradise, but it took her sudden death to finally bring him to its shores - and...

Rich in invention, psychological truth and sheer entertainment, the five short novels that comprise The Avignon Quintet form one of the key works of an undisputed modern master. Another constellation of Mediterranean mysteries and memories. This time it is not Alexandria, but Avignon: the old kingdom of the Popes, the capital of the ancient South of France, the heart of...

Incandescent. - Andre Aciman Nobody knows the Greek islands like Durrell. - New York Times White-washed houses drenched in pink bougainvillea; dazzling seascapes and rugged coastlines; colourful harbours in quaint fishing villages; shady olive and cypress groves; terraces bathed in the Aegean sun... The Greek islands conjure up a treasure-chest of images - but nobody brings them to life as...

In this new selection from the poetry of Lawrence Durrell (the first for thirty years), Peter Porter has drawn on the full range of the published work, from A Private Country (1943) to Vega (1973), and has provided a long overdue re-evaluation of Durrell's poetic career. In his detailed and generous introduction, Porter makes the case for A Private Country...

An expat schoolteacher has spent years in exile reflecting on his turmoiled love affair with Justine, a glamorous Egyptian wife. Returning to wartime Alexandria, he finds that his old friends have suffered dramatic changes of body, mind, and fortune - and someone whom he has never really known wishes to see him. His affair with Clea, a bisexual artist, not...

"In its gem-like miniature quality, among the best books ever written." - New York Times In his youth, before he became a celebrated writer and poet, Lawrence Durrell spent four transformative years on the island jewel of Corfu, fascinated by the idyllic natural beauty and blood-stained ancient history within its rocky shores. While his brother Gerald collected animals as a...

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell is a mesmerising chronicle that captures the essence of Cyprus during a turbulent period in its history. Set in 1953, the book unfolds against the backdrop of the island's struggle for independence from British colonial rule. As Cyprus becomes a battleground for ancient conflicts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, Durrell finds himself amidst...

Mountolive by Lawrence Durrell is a novel that plunges readers into the complex world of an English diplomat in Egypt. David Mountolive, who has been captivated by Egypt since a youthful love affair, returns to Alexandria as the British Ambassador just before World War Two. There, he navigates an intricate web of political and religious conspiracies, connecting him with a...

"A spell-binder... A desperately exciting book." - Daily Telegraph "Exceptionally well written and guaranteed [to] bring back memories of boyhood classics." - Sunday Times "Vivid... Beautiful descriptions... Carries us expertly from one excitement to another." - Punch Colonel Methuen is a seasoned British secret agent, weary of espionage missions and desperately in need of a break - but he can't...

'The most exhilarating surge of language, style and sordid English manners [in] literature.' - DBC Pierre 'A wild, passionate, brilliantly gaudy and flamboyant extravaganza... Richly obscene, energetically morbid, very often very funny... Above all, stylistically and verbally inventive.' - Observer Death Gregory has disappeared, abandoning his diaries in a seedy London hotel. Discovered by Lawrence Lucifer, they depict a clique...

Every interpretation of reality is based upon a unique position... As the threat of world war looms over the city of Alexandria, an exiled Anglo-Irish schoolteacher unravels his erotic obsession with two women: Melissa, a fragile dancer, and Justine, a glamorous married Egyptian woman. Through conversations with Balthazar, a doctor and mystic, these intricate love affairs are cast in an...