Description:
WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE
Cyprus, 1953. As the island fights for independence from British colonial rule, ancient conflicts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots trouble the glittering Mediterranean waters. Into the brewing storm comes ex-pat writer Lawrence Durrell, yearning for the idyllic island lifestyle of his youth in Corfu. With his poet's eye for beauty and humour - and passable Greek - Durrell settles into a dilapidated villa and brilliantly captures the moods and atmospheres of island life in a changing world. Whether collecting folklore or wild flowers, describing the brewing revolution or eccentric local characters, this is more than just a classic travel memoir - it is an unforgettably intimate portrait of a community lost forever.
Brief description: William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated at Oxford. In his youth he was a keen actor, lecturer, small-boat sailor, and musician. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy, where he saw action against battleships and pursued the Bismarck; after the war, he became a schoolteacher until 1961. Golding's debut novel, Lord of the Flies, was published in 1954 after being rescued from Faber & Faber's slush pile of manuscripts, and was filmed by Peter Brook in 1963. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, as well as being knighted in 1988. Recently, the Times ranked Golding third on their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.