Bitter Lemons

This is the first Lawrence Durrell book I have read and he is certainly a superb writer. A description of his time spent in Cyprus during “Enosis”, Greek Cypriots demand for union with mainland Greece, this made fascinating reading. I had spent a week in Cyprus in 2000 and his description of the people and places had me recalling a pleasant week time.

For all my enjoyment of this very fine read I suspect that like another author I admire, Patrick Leigh Fermor, I may not be in agreement with a few of his views. He writes early that he was not going to make political observations. Well he did; “As a conservative, I fully understand, namely; ‘If you have an Empire, you just can't give away bits of it as soon as asked.'” he states at one point. He is clearly a colonialist of the higher order and yes he loved the locals but to me there was a fair bit of paternalism that could be at times condescending. At one point wrote that he thought the locals were cowards! And then “I knew at once that the Empire was all right by the animation of three African dignitaries”. Good grief.

In the end though it is a very good read, at times wonderfully descriptive and very interesting. It has also made me realise that I should read some Cypriot history as I had decided to do many years back but never had.