Spirit of Place

Lose yourself in the definitive collection of glorious travel sketchesby our century's best loved voyager and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu.


'Depicts the brio of Durrell's existence with intoxicating vividness.' New York Times
'Much more than just a chronicle of his travels ... Reveals Durrell's honesty, outspokenness, warmth, and extreme sensitivity to people and to the beauty of nature ... Unusual and fascinating.'Library Journal
'Excellent, vigorous, exciting, unselfconscious, with a lively, original vocabulary ... Shot through with strength and vitality.' TLS

From the moment of his birth, Lawrence Durrell was far from home. A British child in India, he was sent to England to receive an education, and by his early twenties had already tired of his native land. With family in tow, he departed for Greece, and spent the rest of his life wandering the world. He traveled not to sight-see but to live, and made homes in Egypt, France, Yugoslavia, and Argentina.

Each time he landed, he rooted himself deep into the native soil, taking in not just the sights and sounds of his new land, but the essential character of the country. In this definitive collection of glorious letters and essays, Durrell exhibits the power of poetic observation that made his travel writing so extraordinary.