Prospero's Cell

This travelogue is by one of my favorite wordsmiths, who lived on the mystical island of Corfu, Greece.

Under Covid, many of us became armchair travelers, but a guidebook can't recreate the thrill of experiencing new cultures and places. This author does just that—with his elegant prose, we can imagine ourselves walking the limestone streets, sipping Turkish coffee, hearing "Kalimera!" greetings, picking olives, and diving into a crystalline blue sea.

As a travelogue writer, I often wish more travel writers could immerse themselves in a foreign culture as thoroughly as Durrell did and master the… show more.

When life gets a little too much I’d recommend a visit to Corfu in the 1930s with Lawrence Durrell. It’s a diary, semi-fictionalised, of a year living on the island, both a history and a personal evocation of one corner of the Mediterranean world – Corfu’s people, landscape, and history, woven through Durrell’s island idyll beside the most enchanting sea. Durrell hunts fish at night by lamplight, discusses philosophy in taverns, records the timeless cycles of island life – olive harvesting, grape gathering, village festivals, puppet shows, folklore, and superstitions –and sits by candlelight watching the moon rise over the… show more.