Amateurs In Eden :The Story of a Bohemian Marriage: Nancy and Lawrence Durrell
Amateurs In Eden :The Story of a Bohemian Marriage: Nancy and Lawrence Durrell
paperback
Published:
1 February, 2013
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Description
Nancy Durrell was a woman famous for her silences. Anaïs Nin said 'I think often of Nancy's most eloquent silences, Nancy talking with her fingers, her hair, her cheeks, a wonderful gift. Music again.' As the first wife Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet, it is perhaps surprising that she is an unknown entity, a constant presence in the biographies of Durrell and others in the Bloomsbury set, yet always a shadowy figure, beautiful and enigmatic.
But who was the woman who was with Durrell during the most important years of his development as a writer? Joanna Hodgkin decides to retrace her mother's fascinating story: the escape from her toxic and mysterious family; the years in bohemian literary London and Paris in the 1930s; marriage to Durrell and their discovery of the 'Eden' of pre-war Corfu and her desperate struggle to survive in Palestine alone with a small child as the British Mandate collapsed. Amateurs in Eden is a fascinating biography of a literary marriage and of an unusual woman struggling to live an independent life.
Prizes
Short-listed for Spears Book Awards 2012 (UK),Short-listed for H W Fisher Best First Biography Prize 2012 (UK)
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781844087945 |
| ISBN10 | 1844087948 |
| Number Of Pages | 352 |
| Item Weight | 240 g |
| Product Dimensions | 128 x 196 x 24 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Frank and captivating . . . rich in charm and pathos . . . Hodgkin has done both Nancy and herself proud with this fresh portrait of a marriage we thought we knew, and of a woman we have never known well enough -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times *
It's a cracking story, and Hodgkin is a meticulous researcher -- Olivia Laing * Observer *
The animating spirit that pulses through this joint biography is to be thoroughly applauded -- D.J Taylor * Literary Review *
This is not just a memoir of her mother. This is the history of a literary wife. On both counts, Hodgkin succeeds beautifully . . . Her story is not a footnote; it is absolutely central * Independent *
A truly fascinating account of one of those many women, the wives and the girlfriends and the sisters of famous literary men, who have lived a twilight existence in the shadows of the historical canon. A particularly rich and honest account * Scotland on Sunday *
An enjoyable, revisionist account of a bohemian marriage -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Joanna Hodgkin has written several successful psychologial thrillers as Joanna Hines.