The Guardian: Larry: A New Biography of Lawrence Durrell by Michael Haag review – a Mediterranean life
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Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
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culture · British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer (1912–1990) · poet · playwright · autobiographer · writer · screenwriter · novelist · also Lawrence Durrell, Durrell
Born 27 February 1912 · Died 7 November 1990 · Q219784
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2025· 1 entry
2022· 1 entry
The Atlantic: Lawrence Durrell
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2014· 1 entry
The Guardian: Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria villa faces demolition
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2012· 3 entries
The Guardian: Lawrence Durrell and Peggy Glanville-Hicks: a song for Sappho
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The Guardian: The Black Book by Lawrence Durrell – review
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When the Nobel Records were opened after 50 years, it was revealed that Durrell had been nominated for the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature, but did not make the final list
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2002· 1 entry
Durrell in 1966 was "one of the best selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century" and "at the height of his fame"
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1990· 7 entries
Died 1990-11-07.
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“It's unthinkable not to love — you'd have a severe nervous breakdown. Or you'd have to be Philip Larkin.”
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“Old age is an insult. It's like being smacked.”
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“The appalling thing is the degree of charity women are capable of. You see it all the time … love lavished on absolute fools. Love's a charity ward, you know.”
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“Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.”
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“It's only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdry that you can get tenderness.”
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“I'm trying to die correctly, but it's very difficult, you know.”
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1986· 1 entry
Awarded Cholmondeley Award (1986).
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1974· 2 entries
Awarded James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1974).
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Durrell published The Avignon Quintet, using many of the same techniques
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1966· 1 entry
Durrell and many other former and present British residents became classified as non-patrial, as a result of an amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act
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1962· 2 entries
However, he did receive serious consideration, along with Robert Graves, Jean Anouilh, and Karen Blixen, but ultimately lost to John Steinbeck
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Under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962"
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1961· 1 entry
To Claude-Marie Vincendon, whom he met on Cyprus
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1957· 1 entry
Durrell published Justine, the first novel of what was to become his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet
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1955· 1 entry
Durrell separated from Eve Cohen
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1954· 1 entry
Was selected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
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1952· 1 entry
Eve had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised in England
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1951· 1 entry
And named after the ancient Greek poet Sappho
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1950· 1 entry
The year before his daughter was born, Durrell wrote Sappho: a play in verse, about the ancient poet, in which there is an accusation of incest between Sappho and her father; it is revealed to be a falsehood
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1947· 2 entries
After his divorce from Nancy was completed, Durrell married Eve Cohen, with whom he had been living since 1942
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Durrell was appointed director of the British Council Institute in Córdoba, Argentina
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1943· 1 entry
German forces took over most of the islands and held onto them as besieged fortresses until the war's end
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1940· 1 entry
Had a daughter, Penelope Berengaria
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1939· 1 entry
Durrell's mother and siblings returned to England, while Nancy and he remained on Corfu
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1932· 1 entry
She, Durrell, and his younger siblings settled in Bournemouth
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1912· 1 entry
Born 1912-02-27.
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