Lawrence Durrell writer
WHO IS HE ?
A great Irish writer
“When I had come, for the afternoon only, to visit a house for sale in Aujargues, at nightfall I had rented a small villa in a clos overlooking the valley of Sommières from where the great army of vines advance towards the Pic St Loup. All of a sudden, I had the strange feeling of being at home, a feeling that never left me.”
In the spring of 1958, he stayed in Nîmes, at Mazet Michel, where he stayed for a while. Then he discovers Sommières, where he lives at the villa Louis in the Mauvalats. He then decided to settle permanently and bought, in 1966, the Maison Tartès, route de Saussines, in Sommières.
Lawrence Durrell, born February 27, 1912 in Jalandhar, British India and died November 7, 1990 in Sommières, France.
Best known for his Quatuor d'Alexandrie whose first novel, Justine, belongs to the 1000 novels that everyone must read according to The Guardian, Lawrence Durrell was a prolific British writer who was a poet, novelist, biographer and more. More than himself, Lawrence Durrell is a character who also came to life in the pages of his brother Gerald’s Corfu trilogy.
In the latter, the last of the family relates – or at least delivers a fictional work inspired by his existence – the stay on the Greek island of his family – which is completed by their mother Louisa, their brother Leslie and sister Margaret “Margo” Durrell (1919-). My Family and Other Animals, first of the trilogy, is perhaps the most famous book taking place in Corfu.
Sources : extract from «Durrell à Sommières» - Éditions Gaussen.
Souvenir of Lawrence Durrell
Souvenir photo published in a brochure of Max Sagon, here is Lawrence Durrell, with his cabas, in great conversation in the "Grand Rue" (Rue Antonin Paris), with one of his friends Marcel Monteil.
