The International Lawrence Durrell Society Herald Number 34 December 15, 2015 Pamela J. Francis, Editor Susan S. MacNiven, Founding Editor

One reason that the and/or the Greek world he loved The President’s Modern Myth and Legend so fully; to review of how oth- theme is particularly pertinent ers have interpreted Durrell’s Column this year is that it ties in so well life and work. As a linguist, my with our own major confer- own work has always been on Linda Rashidi, ence, OMG XIX: Threading the the periphery of scholarly ex- President, ILDS Labyrinth: Durrell, Greece, and amination of Durrell, and I have World War II, which takes place especially enjoyed past papers Elected May 2014 in Rethymnon, , 26-30 that have looked at Durrell June 2016. Paper proposals for from unusual perspectives. So this conference are due 11 Jan- reach out to anyone you know uary 2016. For more details on who might bring to OMG XIX a the theme and how to submit of- perspective from the business Late autumn is upon us, ferings, visit our website: http:// community, artistic community, and with it the season of ab- lawrencedurrell.org/wp_durrell/ politics, religion, history—or just stracts and paper proposals. omg-xix/. plain folks outside of academia The International Lawrence Dur- that can add insight into Dur- rell Society is once again solicit- Durrell was a many- rell, related authors, or travel- ing those proposals from YOU! faceted person with diverse lers in the Greek world. How By the time this reaches you, interests and a plethora of ideas many ways can the Labyrinth be the deadline will have passed that he translated and transmit- Threaded? for submission of abstracts for ted to the rest of us through the Durrell panel(s) at the Lou- not only literature but also art, Beyond the paper ses- isville Conference on Literature music, and a voluminous corre- sions, Anna Lillios, Conference and Culture Since 1900, but spondence, to name just a few Organizer, and her Committee James Clawson has developed of his modes of expression. As are in the process of finalizing a great theme this year: Modern such, the Conference Organiz- an amazing array of events Myth and Legend. If you have ing Committee and Executive for OMG XIX: tours on WWII never attended this mega-con- Board are making a big push to Resistance activity, visits to ference, you might want to con- reach out to folks from a variety ancient sites, cultural perfor- sider doing so February 18-20 of fields and with a variety of mances, museums, panels and in Louisville, Kentucky. As usu- interests. There will, of course, keynote speakers (including al, the ILDS will not only host a be the usual paper sessions biographers of and authors on panel or two, but will meet for with topics ranging, hopefully both Durrell and Patrick Leigh camaraderie, food and drink, (proposals are just beginning Fermor, experts on the Cretan and stimulating discussion. The to pour in), from critique of Dur- Resistance and the famous Executive Board meets at this rell’s work; to discussion of kidnapping of General Kreipe), time also, and Board members Durrell and his writing in rela- and last but not least, food and profit from interaction with other tion to others whose work and drink in typical Greek taverns. ILDS members (or just lovers of life intersected with his own; to (cont’d next page) Durrell) as we plan and plot. artistic interpretation of Durrell ILDS Herald p. 2 President’s Column, fiction, one of my dog-earred cont’d. copies. A few days later, he plopped down on With this wealth of offer- ings, we would also like to ex- tend an invitation to people who may not have a presentation to propose, and have perhaps never attended an academic conference, but would like to join us in celebrating, discuss- ing, experiencing, and exploring Crete, the WWII Resistance, Greek culture, and/or Durrell and his fellow Greek-loving contemporaries. The Interna- tional Lawrence Durrell Society would not be Durrellian without the interest and input of a vari- ety of people from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of interests. And in this vein, OMG XIX will be welcoming the special participation of the Society, my stonewall and we spent the newly-formed in 2014. You can next two hours pondering “what access their website at www. happened.” Having just studied patrickleighfermorsociety.org. Carl Jung, my student neighbor Larry and Paddy had an endur- was particularly intrigued by the ing friendship that included, philosophical and psychological naturally, some marvelous cor- questions that Durrell raises. I respondence. have discovered over the years of teaching this ‘minor’ work of Since the theme of Durrell how accessible it is to OMG XIX is “Threading the almost anyone. Good storytell- Labyrinth,” I would be remiss if ing never grows old. I didn’t say a word about one of Durrell’s most readily-readable books: The Dark Labyrinth, or originally Cefalu. I have just fin- ished re-reading this novel; part The Dark Labyrinth myth, part adventure tale, part through the years, magical realism, Durrell is at his including the audio best as storyteller. In my small version (middle top), college town, I live surrounded and the electronic edition by undergraduate students. This (second from top, right past summer, I passed on to column) one, an environmental science major who reads mostly science ILDS Herald p. 3 ILDS Herald p. 4 no longer hanging around in This issue promises many Letter from your the caves there. I drove through delights. By an odd sort of kis- mountain villages and saw met, both Grove Koger (briefly) editor— eerie and heartbreaking com- and Peter Baldwin (at length) Pamela J. Francis, editor memorations of Nazi massacres deal with a topic most Durrell (Anna Lillios is organizing a readers know little about; that is, I came to Crete the same tour of WWII Resistance activ- Durrell’s paintings. I was abso- way I came to Alexandria and ity; please see p. 17 for photos lutely thrilled to see these items, Provence—through literature. of some possible stops on this and I hope the reproductions The dear mentor who had intro- tour), and for one blissful hour, here can do justice to Durrell’s duced me to Lawrence Durrell followed the tinkling of bells up artistic pursuits. had also introduced me to Nikos a steep hillside covered with Kazantzakis. And just as I imag- grazing goats. And in an effort Check out Anne Zahlan’s ined the mysterious streets of a to work off some great local yo- selections from Heralds past, cosmopolitan city constructed gurt and cheese, I hiked down and Linda Rashidi reflects on a from a mud made of the world’s the Samaria Gorge…and then recent conference and its suc- great religions, ex-patriates of just kept on walking right into cesses, a valuable conversa- the world’s great nations, and the Libyan Sea, where my spirit tion as we prepare for our own refugees from the world’s great (and my feet!) were revived by meeting of the minds. And as al- traumas, so I came to imagine an underwater spring of ice cold ways, please send me any info the dusty roads of villages that water. My day drives included you think would be appropriate dotted the hillsides of a fiercely trips to monasteries, and my for the Herald! I can be reached xenophobic and angrily inde- evenings included celebrating at [email protected]. pendent island, an outpost of Greece’s EuroCup win with sev- Please let me hear from you; in history paradoxically located eral hundred ecstatic locals in a the meantime, I wish you all the on the world’s busiest maritime seaside café in Mirtos. happiest of holiday seasons! highway. I am thrilled that next sum- Unlike the mysterious streets mer’s On Miracle Ground XIX of Alexandria, which, I read, his- will be held in Crete, and this is- tory has cleared of its miasma sue of the Herald is intended to of multi-culturalism, or the vil- get you excited too! Anna Lilios, lages of Provence, now overrun tireless organizer, has provided by tourists, I’ve actually wan- an excellent bibliography of dered the dusty roads of Crete. texts related to the Cretan Re- Okay, some of the “roads” were sistance and Allied participa- highways, and I wandered tion in World War II. We’ve also about in a sporty little Fiat, but I included a listing of hotels and spent a week in Crete in 2004, rooms available in the area; and it was one of the most ex- Anna has noted that conferees citing, beautiful, and thoughtful may be better off searching on weeks of my life. I’ve published Expedia or other travel sites for on Kazantzakis, and a trip to lodging appropriate to their own The caves at Matala: alas, his village and the Kazantzakis situations. Many of the hotels no Romans--or hippies; Museum stands out as the most are small and cannot reserve a sunburnt selfie; a bust gratifying day of the trip. How- large blocks of rooms, while oth- of Kazantzakis in the ever, for plain fun, Matala takes ers are not suitable for families. museum at Myrtia. the prize, though I was disap- This list, however, should get pointed to find that hippies were you started! ILDS Herald p. 5

helping us plan the confer- when Leigh Fermor and W. ence. Stanley Moss kidnapped On the Nazi general of Crete, One of the themes of Heinrich Kreipe, on , Miracle Ground the conference centers on 1944, and transported him XIX British writers and Cretan by foot over the mountains freedom-fighters who re- of Crete and by British mo- sisted the Nazis in Crete dur- will convene in Rethymnon tor launch across the Aegean ing World War II. Although on the island of Crete in to the custody of the Allies in Lawrence Durrell claimed he Ill Met by Moon- Greece, June 26-29. The or- Egypt. Moss’s account of the wanted to serve in the Greek light ganizers of the conference kidnapping, army when the Nazis invad- invite anyone who has an , was published in 1950. ed Greece in 1941, he ended interest in Lawrence Durrell, up barely escaping war-torn The conference will his circle, Mediterranean Greece. According to Ian begin with presentations by studies, or British writers MacNiven, Durrell, his wife leading Durrell scholars, Ian in WWII to join them. The Nancy, and baby Penelope MacNiven and Michael Haag, conference committee is still were within days of being who will talk on Durrell and in the midst of planning the interned by the Nazis when his circle in Greece during conference, which will be the vice-consul at the British the war. The conference will located in the small seacoast Council arranged for a cai- also feature talks and tours town of Rethymnon. The que to take them from Pylos related to Cretan and British conference sessions will be to Crete on April 22, 1941: resistance against the Nazis held at the Gallos campus “They could take no belong- during the war and tours to of the University of Crete ings. They carried Penelope sites related to the Kreipe in Rethymnon. It is a hu- like a loaf of bread” (229). kidnapping. Tours to Cretan manities and social sciences- They spent a week in Crete, archaeological sites, such as based institution and one of finally boarding an Austra- Knossos and the National two universities in Crete; the lian transport ship bound Archaeological Museum in other, in , houses for Egypt on April 30. Later, Heraklion will also be ar- the sciences, technology, and the Dark Labyrinth Durrell would write about ranged. medicine. Sixteen thousand Crete in . students are enrolled at both MacNiven claims that, “For --Anna Lillios campuses, although we will sub-plot and episodes it see few students because would owe a lot to the Cre- classes will have ended by tan adventures of his friends the time our conference be- Paddy Leigh Fermor and Xan gins. The Dean of the School Fielding” (296), who were of Philosophy at the univer- assisting Cretan freedom- sity, Dr. Lucia Athanassakis, fighters in warding off the who received her Ph.D from Nazis. The culmination of Brown University, has been their adventures occurred enormously supportive in ILDS Herald p. 6 Edited by Michael Haag and death.” Helping launch the exhibi- published by the American Univer- tion was Craxton’s friend Sir David The sity in Cairo Press, An Alexandria Attenborough, who loaned three Anthology includes selections by Craxton paintings from his own Chart Durrell as well as E.M. Forster, Con- collection and who characterized stantine Cavafy, Robin Fedden, and the artist as “an absolutely wonder- Theodore Stephanides. ful fellow.” (You can see a video of Room Attenborough and writer Hilary Spurling speaking at the museum on by Grove Koger YouTube.) The exhibition moves to Salisbury Museum early next year.

Thanks to the efforts of James Gifford, we have a substantial new volume by Lawrence Durrell to enjoy. From the Elephant’s Back: Collected Essays & Travel Writings Sid Gentle Films has an- contains more than three dozen OP nounced that UK television network or previously unpublished pieces. ITV has commissioned a six-part The earliest dates from 1937, while ITV series based on Gerald Dur- the most recent, the paper from rell’s three classic memoirs of Corfu. which the book takes its title, was Production company founder and delivered at the Centre Georges CEO Sally Woodward Gentle calls Pompidou in 1981 and appeared in the memoirs—My Family and print the following year. Published Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and by the University of Alberta Press, Relatives; and Garden of the Gods The Ionian Islands collects the collection also includes an intro- (Fauna and Family)—“some of the papers delivered at “The History duction by Gifford and a foreword warmest, wittiest books of the last and Culture of the Ionian Islands,” by Peter Baldwin. The Heraldwill century.” Filming of the series was a seminar held at the Durrell School carry a review of the book in a future set to begin in Corfu in September, of Corfu in 2010. The book is edited issue. with broadcast scheduled for 2016. by Anthony Hirst (Manager and Ac- The Durrells A colorful watercolor of the The scripts for are be- ademic Directory of the school from Cypriot port of Kyrenia was one of ing written by Simon Nye, with 2010 to 2013) and Patrick Sammon several artworks by Durrell up for Milo Parker playing Gerald Durrell (author of Greenspeak: Ireland in sale by Cottees Auction House of and Josh O’Connor playing Law- Her Own Words) and published by Wareham earlier this year. The piece rence. Cambridge Scholars. sold to an online bidder for ₤2200. An exhibition at the Dorset Other lots relating to Durrell includ- County Museum in Dorchester fea- ed books and a selection of ephem- tured 120 works by John Craxton, era. who spent much of his later life in Crete. Exhibition curator Ian Collins calls Craxton “one of the art world’s best-kept secrets,” but adds that “his reputation has surged since his ILDS Herald p. 7 New and Noteworthy

Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos

ILDS Herald p. 8 paintings but the reader is calm.’ Conversations directed to Corinne Alexandre- Garner’s beautifully presented ‘For [D.H.Lawrence] spreading book ‘Lawrence Durrell: paint on canvas evoked every with Another Dans l’Ombre du Soleil kind of sensual feeling.’ Grec’ [Paris(?), 2011], a wide- Quoting an American psy- Ass, or a ranging choice in French of chiatrist: ‘The writer is … Durrell’s writings, supple- an orally regressed psychic View from mented by a large selection masochist. Hence writing and of Durrell’s paintings and alcoholism are so often found drawings. Unlike earlier pub- together.’ Pudding lications using Durrell’s paint- ings in black and white, these ‘To sketch rather than just are well reproduced in colour to doodle can be an excel- Island showing how Durrell had a lent prop for an author who by Peter Baldwin fauve-like interest in the use is conscious that he does not of such a medium. ‘see’ one of his characters very clearly; it is a law of nature Regression or Durrell readily admitted to that if a character is not in a adventures in art? being a ‘Sunday painter’ and sharp focus because the author one cannot pretend that they has not really ‘seen’ him, the – a commentary on carry some coded-emotions as result will be a failure of com- one might see, say, in Matisse munication for the reader.’ some of the paint- or Dufy. I view them as exten- ings of Oscar Epfs sions in Durrell’s mind’s-eye I hope you get the idea. of his generous descriptions of place. In the illustrations In Durrell’s introduction to which follow, I do not attempt The Paintings of Henry at any interpretation; I ascribe Miller [Santa Barbara, Capra my own titles for want of any Press.1982], Durrell wrote as title on the art work itself. follows and these serve also as descriptions Durrell might In 1973, Durrell wrote a have added to his own picto- long preface to an exhibition rial attempts. catalogue: Pen as Pencil : (Lawrence Durrell’s inscrip- Drawings and Paintings by ‘Henry Miller always gave the tion and sketch in a copy of A British Authors.. [London: impression of enjoying a pleas- Key to Modern Poetry) Europalia 73, 1973]. Here are ant, if somewhat infantile, flir- some quotations to show just tation with paint, but in fact how important Durrell felt his love went very deep, and that graphic art should be to whatever his positive achieve- the writer. ments as an artist may be, This short piece will look [and his random sensibility drew a invite the reader, literally, ‘When he, the artist, felt un- great part of its richness from to look at] at six paintings comfortably threatened by the world of colour into which by Lawrence Durrell which his nerves he turned a lever he had penetrated with de- are part of my own collec- (sic) and by the act of paint- light long before his arrival in tion. There never has been a ing a water colour let off some Paris.’(cont’d p. 10) catalogue raisonee of Durrell’s steam and thus retrieved his ILDS Herald p. 9

On left: Greek Island: 480 x 400. Signed: Larry Durrell To right:Abstract on brown paper/paint collage: 250 x 180. Signed Epfs 1963 Below: Androgynous person: 480 x 400. Not signed. Painted on re- verse of ‘Greek Island’

Below: Greek priests: 510 x 270. Signed Autographed for Georgia (sic) Mills from Law- rence Durrell 1960. [Geor- gina Mills was the wife of Dr Ray Mills – about whom see Durrell’s book Reflections on a Marine Venus}

Above: Dancers: 540 x 460. Signed: Oscar Epfs (Lawrence Durrell) 1949 (sic) To left: Greek fishermen: 250 x 180. Signed: Oscar Epfs 1964 ILDS Herald p. 10 Ian MacNiven in his biogra- New and in the English speaking world and phy of Durrell doesn’t mince to the field of Modern Greek Stud- his words: ‘Larry was not a Noteworthy ies in the United States. very accomplished artist…’ [p cont’d 538]. Might there be more to it than that? I do not think we The Harry Ransom Center has Mike should dismiss too lightly the the largest collection of Waugh illustrative work of a writer holdings in the world. This Cartwright Waugh-themed installment of who might work out his ideas the University of Texas’s British The Durrell Society has received equally in paint as in words, Studies seminar will celebrate the sad news concerning former so far as the skills are avail- collection and its role in our proj- ILDS member, Mike Cartwright. able to him. Might there be ect, as well as looking at Waugh’s In a letter from his wife, Jeanetta something more essential own experiences in the United- Drueke, we are told that Mike about Durrell’s art which the States. died unexpectedly on May 22 of critical world has yet to ex- this year. She added: plore? Here are Mike’s obituary and Durrell had first ‘gone public’ a long piece about him on the as an artist in 1964 when, at Whitney Reflections website. As the height of his fame as a you will see, he enjoyed both his writer, he staged an exhibi- long career and his retirement. tion of his work at a gallery in In the weeks prior to his death, Paris, concealing the artist’s he was happily planning for the true identity by calling himself This year’s Edmund Kelley Book future. Oscar Epfs, the name chosen Prize winner, Kostas Kornetis’ http://whitney-reflections. because it sounded ‘exactly Children of the Dictatorship, blogspot.com/2015/05/whitneys- like a fart’. Durrell thought Berghan Books, 2013 the French would find the mike-cartwright-dies-at-age-72. surname hard to pronounce, html adding that such a marvellous Edmund Keeley Book name as Epfs deserved an Os- http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/ car! Prize announcements/obituaries/ cartwright-dr-michael/ar- The Edmund Keeley Book Prize Therefore, treat the level of ticle_e95ac088-be3f-50a9-9791- is awarded to an academic book seriousnes with which Durrell b5a8d0e1c328.html dealing with modern Greece or a took his art as you will – as Hellenic theme published origi- mocking as a fart in good com- We mourn the loss of our former nally in the English language. pany or an extension of the member. The obituary allows writer’s imagination. I think readers to leave comments for At the MGSA Executive Board Jeannette and his family. that Durrell’s own occasional meeting of November 2005, writings on art such as those it was resolved that the MGSA cited above reveal as much Book Prize should be named in about Durrell’s psychology as honor of Edmund Keeley, found- a writer as they do of his atti- ing member and first president tude to pictorial art. of the MGSA, in recognition of his distinguished contributions, as pio- neering translator and critic, to the broad dissemination and scholarly study of modern Greek literature ILDS Herald p. 11 Buddhism, whose metaphysic London events at which Durrell Thirty Years genuinely rejects that signed books: Ago in the hard-edged, materialist, ego-centered Western world . . . . I would like Herald view of which the novel is to think that the happiest perhaps our clearest lit- of those sessions was at Bernard Stone’s remarkable Selected by erary reflection. Is it, then, possible to write a bookshop in Lamb’s Con- Anne Zahlan ‘Tibetan’ novel—that is duit Street, London. Very to say, a new, more fluid, soon after the session

open-ended kind of fiction, started, Bernard’s shop was thronged with enthusi- The fifth issue of The still recognizable to nov- el-readers though largely astic readers of Durrell’s Lawrence Durrell Society Herald, work. Many had brought edited by Gregory Dickson, Susan shedding the usual assump- tions of the genre?” what must have seemed to MacNiven, and Lawrence Markert, be very large stacks of and dated 15 October 1985, opened In this issue’s “Views from Durrelliana for Durrell with President Jim Nichols’ men- Pudding Island,” Peter Baldwin to inscribe. I was one of tion of the suicide of Sappho Jane awards the U.K. reviewing laurels those perspiring in a shop Durrell the previous February. “For to Allan Massie in The Scotsman , packed with his admirers, such loss,” Jim noted, “there can quoting the following excerpt: grateful for Durrell’s pa- never be any adequate reparation.” tience in signing so many The issue’s good news was of the With the publication books. . . release (May in London, August in of this novel, Lawrence New York) of Quinx or The Rip- Durrell brings off what is Included in the May 1985 per’s Tale, this publication marking perhaps the most remark- Herald’s “People, Places and Pub- the completion in print of Durrell’s able double in modern Eng- lications” is notice of the Arabic Avignon Quintet. lish literature; certainly publication of a study by Soad I can’t immediately think Sobhy [1946-1997]: “ Lawrence This first post-Quinx Her- of another post-war novel- Durrell the Fabulator, A Foreign ald features summaries of a num- ist who has contrived two Perspective of Egypt in The Alex- ber of reviews, some expressing novel-sequences such as andria Quartet.” In Soad’s words: disappointment such as those by The Alexandria Quartet and Nicholas Shrimpton in the Sunday now the Avignon Quintet. My study is written Times and Paul Skenazy in the Though others like Anthony in Arabic and deals with San Francisco Chronicle Review. Powell and C.P. Snow have the development of the im- Among the positive reviews, editor written multivolumed nov- age of the Egyptian woman Susan MacNiven singles out Keith els which are actually from El Akkad’s works to Brown’s “very thoughtful” “Up to longer than the Quartet Nawal El Saadawi’s. El the Pisgah-sight” in The Times Lit- and Quintet together. . . Akkad portrays the tra- erary Supplement: nevertheless to bring off ditional patriarchal an- a double as Durrell has tagonism towards women . . . Brown whereas Nawal El Saadawi notes Durrell’s attempt to done demands an extraordi- nary effort of concentrat- is a staunch feminist. create a fiction based on a Though not a great nov- radically different meta- ed imagination, invention and virtuosity. elist, she gives a very physic . . .: “In recent frank if not very palat- years [Durrell] has found Baldwin also delightfully able image of the sexual his way into a growing evokes one of several May 1985 situation in Egypt (so involvement with Tibetan far a taboo subject). She ILDS Herald p. 12 Thirty Years Ago ranges. Phone numbers with the (30) 89 Stamathioudakis Str, Rethymnon, Crete, prefix are Greek numbers, and numbers 741 00 Greece. Phone: 888-734-8507 cont’d with the (888) prefix are connected to (questionable availability) hotels.com writes in English and has • Casa Moazzo been published in the Hotels on the beach, near the U. of United States . . . . Na- 57 Tobazi Street Metropolitan Church guib Mahfouz, Egypt’s most Crete: Square, Rethymnon, Crete, 741 00 Greece. famous and prolific writer, gives in his naturalistic • Macaris Suites Phone: 888-724-6413 ($131) novels a moving image of the middle-class woman, Stamathioudaki 70, Rethymnon, Crete, • Leo Hotel 74100 Greece the class that has suf- Vafe 2 - 4 & Arkadiou Str., Rethymnon, fered most from confinement and tradition. He has been Phone: 888-675-8872. ($140-240 for Crete, Greece. Phone: 888-734-8507 translated into several 1-2 bedroom suites) ($93) languages. Heinemann has so far published three of • Petradi Beach 12 Karaoli Dimitriou Square, Rethymnon, Midaq Alley, Crete, 741 00 Greece Phone: 888-724- his works: Stamathioudaki 79, Rethymnon, Crete, Miramar, and Sons of Our 6413. ($120) Alley. . . . 74100 Greece Phone: 888-734-8507 (limited availability). • Palazzo Vecchio Hotels in the Old Town of Rethymnon Iroon Politechniou & Melissinou, Rethym- non, Crete, 74100 Greece. Phone: 888- • Jo-Ann Palace Hotel 673-2059.($87) Dimitrakaki 8, Rethymnon. Phone: 30- • Veneto Hotel 2831-024-241. www.joanpalace.com [email protected] Epimenidou 4, Old Town, Rethymnon, Crete, 74100 Greece. Phone: 888-734- • Rimondi Boutique Hotel 8507. ($107) 10, Xantoulidou Street, Rethym- • Antica Dimora Suites Hotels for OMG XIX non, Crete, 741 00 Greece. Phone: 888- 734-8507. ($127) Agias Varvaras 2, Rethymnon, Crete, 741 There is no one conference 00 Greece. Phone: 30-2831-030810 (lim- hotel. The situation in Rethymnon is • Bellagio ited availability) similar to what we experienced in Corfu: there are many unique, wonderful small 21 Agias Varvaras Str., Rethymnon, Crete, Transportation hotels that may have only a few rooms 741 00 Greece. Phone: 888-724-6413. available. The hotels on the list below ($85) Check with https://www.google. com/flights/ for inexpensive, direct flights are recommended by faculty at the • Byzantine University of Crete or British scholars from major European cities to Chania or who do research in Crete. All hotels are Vosporou 26, Rethymnon, Crete, 74100 Heraklion, Crete. highly rated by TripAdvisor.com. Please Greece Phone: 888-734-8507 ($70). (cont’d next page) also consult expedia.com and hotels. • Casa Delfini com for fine accommodations in all price ILDS Herald p. 13 cont’d from p. 12 tions of Alexandria, which have persisted in criticism through the Car rental is easy but fairly DEUS LOCI years. Finally, Corinne Alexandre- expensive, especially if you need a car Garner appro priately, for a ret- with an automatic transmission (be sure The Lawrence Durrell rospective issue, examines Durrell’s to request an automatic at the time of Journal sense of closure in his works. rental; otherwise, the default is a car In a Note, Jonathan Stubbs, a pro- with a shift transmission). You can find fessor at the University of Cyprus, rental cars on major car rental web sites The next issue of Deus reports on a revealing memo that is the special centenary is- or on Expedia.com. Driving in Greece is Loci Durrell wrote in Cyprus, reveal- sue, in honor of Lawrence Durrell’s a challenge, and Crete is no exception. ing his feelings about his mission birth in 1912. The issue begins with there. The memo was buried for Advanced driving skills and an ability to reminiscences by Ian MacNiven 60 years in official papers at the read Greek on road signs are necessary (“Found on the Cutting Room British Museum. if you plan to drive through the moun- Floor: Left Out of the Biography”) tainous areas of Crete. and Peter Baldwin’s memories of Donald Kaczvinsky, the Book Re- working with Durrell as his pub- view editor, has gathered together An alternative means of trans- lisher at Delos Press. six interesting book reviews for portation is the ubiquitous taxi. Taxis the issue, ranging from his review Among the articles, Richard Pine of Judith to a review of Michiko are inexpensive. You can even rent a taxi is the first critic to discuss Durrell’s Kawano’s translation of Sappho to take you from one of the airports to multiple manuscripts of Judith, recently published in Osaka, Ja- Rethymnon. eventually published as a book by pan. the Durrell School of Corfu. Transportation in Retyhmnon to the Uni- David Radavich has conducted David Roessel takes a look at the versity of Crete will be necessary unless another successful White Mouse Durrells’ connection with Has- you enjoy walking. There are taxis and contest. The theme was “Is- san Fathy and the creation of the lands”—and Michael Colonnese bus service in the area. Bus schedules model city of Gourna, material and Kateri Kosek were co-winners. and bus stops will be posted in the that would appear in The Revolt spring. of Aphrodite. All Durrell scholars are grateful for the work that Grove Koger does Isabelle Privat-Keller also breaks on the Durrell bibliography. This ground as one of the first critics to year he covers the years 1999— write about Durrell’s Red Limbo 2002. Lingo, which, Privat-Keller claims, bridges the gap between the Quartet and the Quintet.

Paul Lorenz tries to get at the es- sence of Durrell’s London and his Englishness in his article.

Michael Haag takes a look at an- Rethymnon at Night other Durrellian city, Alexandria, by attacking Mahmoud Manza- laoui’s “Curate’s Egg: An Alexan- drian Opinion of Durrell’s Quartet” for all of its numerous misconcep- ILDS Herald p. 14 “Lines Between”: a ment, were endlessly cheerful, final half day, plus a guided helpful, and engaging. “Lines tour of Nicosia on the after- Conference and an Between: Culture and Empire noon before the conference Island in the Eastern Mediterranean” opened. This meant that, for was one of the most interest- the most part, all participants by Linda Rashidi ing and best-organized confer- participated fully, attending ences I have ever participated sessions other than their own, For decades now, I have in. We in the ILDS have much engaging in discussion, and ached for a conference to at- to emulate as we move toward seeking out interesting fellow tend on Cyprus, but I had our own conference on a ‘C’ paper-givers. I was blessed in not fully thought about the Greek island, Crete, in June being able to meet and have uniqueness of this island state 2016, both in terms of content in-depth discussions (both aca- until I actually landed there in and in terms of pragmatics, so demic and otherwise) with an June. In an email to Richard I want to mention just a few amazing variety of people. Pine, I had mentioned that I of the reasons why “Lines Be- was attending the “Lines Be- tween” succeeded so well. And that brings me to tween” conference on Corfu, the best feature of “Lines Be- to which Richard replied that, tween”—the sessions. It was while he would love to wel- clear from the beginning that come me to Corfu, he was sure the organizers had put time that I meant Cyprus. Indeed! and effort into organizing the All those Greek islands begin- various sessions for coher- ning with ‘C’. But, truth be ence. The theme of much of told, Cyprus is not exactly just what I heard was ‘identity’, another Greek island; while it a natural for both the overall has a complicated history, it is, conference theme of “Culture The Tree of Idleness: a tree truly, its own self. And, today and Empire” and for the loca- on the premises claims to it is still its own two separate tion. I was especially struck be “the” Tree of Idleness in selves: Greek and Turkish. by young scholars. In the very LD’s Bitter Lemons Fortunately for me, I got to ex- first session I attended, Ala perience both. Elhoudiri, a Briton of Libyan One sign that a confer- origin and a graduate student ence (or anything, really) is My raison d’être for be- at the University of Plymouth, well-run is that the average ing on Cyprus was what I had gave a paper entitled “The participant is not aware of the been calling “David Roessel’s Battle for Cyprus: the Racial inner workings of the thing, conference,” but this confer- Divide between East and West and this was certainly true ence was the product of many in Shakespeare’s Othello.” of “Lines Between”: buses ar- people and two institutions: Playing off of Said’s Oriental- rived on time, venue sites the European University of ism but also invoking Africa- were available, the program Cyprus and Richard Stockton nus, she explored Britain’s ran as advertised, and—a big College of New Jersey. David’s 16th century knowledge of positive with me—sessions co-organizer was Stavros Stav- the Middle East and how that began and ended on schedule. rou Karayanni. And David informed the identity of ‘the While three parallel paper ses- brought with him a cadre of Moor.’ A second young scholar sions meant having to make students that acted as guides, whose work I personally found too many choices, it allowed facilitators, and general all fascinating was Stephanie the program to fit into two and around spots of bright light. Jacobs, an Australian with Cy- a half days with a conference These students, many from priot heritage. cont’d p. 16 Stockton’s theater depart- excursion and dinner in the ILDS Herald p. 15 British Writers Dunbabin, Tom J. An Ar- Kokonas, Nikos. Cretan Re- chaeologist at War. Herak- sistance 1941-1945. Fore- and the Cretan lion, Crete: Society of Cretan ward by Patrick Leigh Fer- Resistance During Historical Studies, 2015. mor.London: Mystis, 2004. WWII [An archaeologist, Dunbabin [Dunbabin’s Official Report was sent to Crete as head of for SOE. A companion piece compiled by Anna Lillios the SOE in 1942.] to Abducting A General.]

Beevor, Anthony. Crete: the Fermor, Patrick Leigh. Ab- Mazower, Mark. Inside Hit- Battle and the Resistance. ducting A General—The ler’s Greece. New Haven: NY: Penguin, 2014. Kreipe Operation and SOE in Yale UP, 1993. Crete. London: John Murray, [One of the best accounts of 2014 Crete in WW2—needs updat- Moss, W. Stanley. Ill Met By ing a little but overall still Moonlight. Afterword by Pat- the most authoritative.] Fielding, Xan. Hide and rick Leigh Fermor. London: Seek: The Story of a Wartime George G. Harrap and Co., Agent. London: Paul Dry 1950. Cooper, Artemis. Patrick Books, 2013. Leigh Fermor: An Adventure. [Recently reprinted—excel- NY: New York Review Books, Psychoundakis, George. The 2012. lent first-hand account of Fielding’s time in Crete.] Cretan Runner. 1955. In------. Cairo in the War: 1939 troduction by Patrick Leigh – 1945. London: John Mur------. The Stronghold: Four Fermor. NY: Penguin, 1998. ray, 2013. Seasons in the White Moun- tains of Crete. London: Paul [The story of a shepherd who [Offers interesting contextual Dry Books, 2013. became a war-time runner/ information on the ebb and guide for the British and Cre- flow of the war in North Af- [Recently reprinted—excel- tan resistance fighters.] rica.] lent account of Fielding’s return to Crete immediately post war.] Rendel, Alexander. Appoint- Damer, Sean and Ian Frazer. ment in Crete. (Currently out On the Run: ANZAC Escape of print). and Evasion in Enemy-occu- Kiriakopoulis, G.C. The Nazi pied Crete. Occupation of Crete, 1941- 1945. Westport, CT: Prae- Roessel, David. In Byron’s [Currently out of print—but ger, 1985. Shadow: Modern Greece in a fascinating book by a soci- the English and American ologist and anthropologist.] [History of the Cretan resis- tance during WWII.] Imagination. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. -----. Ten Days to Destiny: Davis, Wes. The Ariadne Ob- The Battle for Crete. NY: jective. NY: Crown, 2013. Franklin Watts, 1985. ILDS Herald p. 16 cont’d from p. 14 provoking. The topics included tion in the politics of Cyprus, I the connection of art and his- was surprised in Bellapais at She is in the midst of collect- tory in Cyprus by Rita Severis, the exploitation of Durrell and ing oral histories of Greek and director of an art foundation Bitter Lemons—anything for Turkish Cypriots with the goal in Nicosia; a discussion of a tourist euro (or lira, both of of recording conflicting (or not political detention in Cyprus which are accepted). Durrell’s so conflicting) ‘truths’ of what and End of Empire by Andrew house, up a narrow lane above life was like before the island Thompson, Chair of History, the village, is privately owned was divided. She has finished University of Exeter; and a but is named ‘Bitter Lemons’ her interviews with Cypriots look at Cleopatra as modern and has a plaque declaring in the (Australian) diaspora trope of Mediterranean iden- that ‘the famous author’ once and will be interviewing those tity by Ella Shohat, Profes- lived here. Down in the vil- still living on Cyprus. Finally, sor of Cultural Studies, New lage, the most prominent Libby Miller, who was off to York University. The confer- restaurant is named “Tree of Egypt for more research, gave ence ended with an excursion Idleness” and another plaque an historical view of Egyptian into the Troodos Mountains, declares the tree in front to identity by investigating The a vertiginous and magnificent be the tree of idleness. Tour- Alexandrian Atelier, founded drive, ending with an endless ist busses arrive hourly in the in 1945, that strove to create dinner of meze and drinks tiny square, mostly to tour the an iconography of Egypt ver- (ouzo and wine) at a ‘tradition- Abbey, but also to take in the sus Arab identity; she follows al tavern’ in the touristy but Durrell hype and browse the the trajectory of Alexandrian picturesque village of Omodos. tchotchke shops. identity from European to Egyptian to Arab to Islamic. After the conference, I Cyprus has long been a travelled to the northern half theater of political contention, And there were, of of Cyprus, indeed another and it remains so today. Peo- course, papers on and about country. While the Republic ple on both sides of the Green Durrell. Besides my own work of Cyprus is an efficient and Line loudly proclaim their on Arab identity in the writing modern member of the Euro- views and defend their rights. of Durrell, Freya Stark, and pean Union, the Turkish Re- If Cyprus was once an island T.E. Lawrence, David Roessel public of Northern Cyprus is where Greeks and Turks explored the politics of Bitter stuck somewhere in the 1970s, mingled and shared heritages, Lemons in Rodis Roufos’s The more reminiscent of North the long division into realms Age of Bronz; this lively pre- Africa than Europe. Though of influence has rendered that sentation included a dramatic one can now travel between mutual respect a thing of the reading by one of Roessel’s the two with relative ease, the past—and that is more the students, Nicole Clark. In fact, contrast in both landscape and pity for a small piece of land the conference will filled with services is stark. But tourism that lies at the crossroads of performance, one of which was is alive and well in the area so much and so many peoples. a mesmerizing concert by Ni- around the port of Kyrenia “Lines Between” is, itself, an coletta Demetriou of Cypriotic (Girne). I stayed at a lovely apt description for this island. songs. This took place at the ‘holiday village’ in the moun- evening opening session in the tains above both Kyrenia and crypt at Famagusta Gate, its Bellapais, the village of Dur- arches echoing Nicoletta’s very rell fame, a fame that extends Cypriotic tones. far beyond those of us who Finally, all three Key- are Durrell aficionados. Given note addresses were thought- Durrell’s controversial posi- ILDS Herald p. 17

Viannos, South Crete

Memorial for Greek and Australian Troops, Rethymno

Cemetery, Souda Bay

Preveli International Memo- rial for Resistance and Peace Alikionos