Durrell rages against his country for having put Cyprus under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Office. Coming out of the Colonial Office, I knew at once that the Empire was all right by the animation of three African dignitaries.

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (Audio Download): Andrew Sachs Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (Audio Download): Andrew Sachs

I think this is really good book if you want to get a basic understanding of Cyprus, its people and history. But even this gets topped (in my eyes at least) when the author does not see the irony in the fact that his friend Antonis is grateful that his son will be off to get educated in England, rather than join the insurrection against the British. His love for the Cypriot people is clear, but he firmly views them as a rural, somewhat childlike people who are far happier under British rule than they would be under union with an increasingly dynamic and urban Greek nation.

Well worth the read for those interested in this period of history, or have an interest in mid 20th Century life on Cyprus.

Bitter Lemons - Wikipedia

He can see for himself the injustice of forcing a proud people to live without a promise of a future, how the British occupation of the land might be preserving a peace among Greek and Turk, but denies everyone a transition to the twentieth century, be that something as important as a local university or as trivial as a public swimming pool. They live on a limpid[διαυγές] state, like creatures of lower types clinging[που προσκολλούνται] to life. Durrell was asked to take up a position as public information officer for the colonial administration which puts him in a position to see the problem from many perspectives.He settles into a dilapidated villa, and with his poet’s eye for beauty – and passable Greek – vividly captures the moods and atmospheres of island life in a changing world. Turks didn't impose their culture, language and religion upon others forcibly –unlike British- just because they'd assumed what they had was not worthy of imposing? Then, British troops shoot three youths "under severe provocation" in Limassol, a "trivial" incident.

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It captured the life and changing political mindset of the people well, from which I felt was an unbiased point of view. Although the first paragraphs of the book are quite purple, it seemed to promise to deliver the goods on stereotyping Cypriot Greeks, if only, it turns out, because Lawrence Durrell is so British. Most are surprised that he is fluent in Greek and it is in conversation with a man over the glass of the heavy red wine that he is provided with a man who could take him to the village of Kyrenia. This is the first Laurence Durrel book that I have ever read even though I have had a few of them languishing on my shelves at home.He speaks of his neighbors in a somewhat paternalistic but not dismissive way but because he speaks Greek they are hospitable and friendly, at least at first. The tree is more than a totem or a metaphor: rather it is a geocosmic force around which the entire Earth rotates. Home to William Golding, Sylvia Plath, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sally Rooney, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Max Porter, Ingrid Persaud, Anna Burns and Rachel Cusk, among many others, Faber is proud to publish some of the greatest novelists from the early twentieth century to today. Therefore, I was quite determined to be as open-minded and just as possible before I started this book.

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell | Waterstones

Or his confirmation that a few "lunatics" in Crete or Rhodes could start a struggle for Greek independence almost anywhere.I have been reading an essay,” he said, “in which it says that freedom has never been given, but always taken, always earned at the cost of blood.