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Patrick Leigh Fermor

British Diaries

from Crete

to TWO
Corfu
BRITISH, TWO
AUTHORS

Two British, two authors, two people of
high intellectuality, lovers of travels and
unregretful friends of Greece. Paddy, Patrick
Leigh Fermor (1915-2011), travel writer and
scholar, resident of Kardamyli, author of
the travelogues “Mani” and “Roumeli”, and
Larry, Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), poet,
playwriter, novelist, famous for his tetralogy
of novels entitled “The Alexandria Quartet”.
In 1933 Fermor starts his travels to the East,
which concludes in Greece. As an agent of
the British Services in Crete, he becomes
internationally famous for the abduction of
Heinrich Kreipe, the German commander
of Crete. An accomplishment which in 1957
becomes a movie under the title “Ill Met
By Moonlight”, with Dirk Bogarde playing
Leigh Fermor. In 1935, newlywed Durrell
convinces his wife, his mother and brothers
and sisters to move to Corfu, away from the
gloomy London weather, where he could be
dedicated to his writing. The beautiful Ionian
island proves indeed a paradise for the
Durrells. At the remote little village Kalami,
in the famous White House, expatriate
Durrell writes his first significant novel,
“The black book” (1938), inspired by the
“Tropic of Cancer” (1934) by Henry Miller.
Many books follow, whereas the life of the
An Adventure, Metaixmio Editions, 2012 (Greek edition)

Two Greek islands are eminent in the field of action and inspiration of two great
figures in the world’s literature scene. Δύο ελληνικά νησιά στο πεδίο έμπνευσης
και δράσης δύο μεγάλων μορφών της παγκόσμιας λογοτεχνικής σκηνής.
by Elena Mathiopoulou