Amateurs in Eden

I’ve been quietly stockpiling books for a series of articles about Lawrence Durrell, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and their overlapping circle of acquaintances. Once I had hold of all the standard letters collections and biographies, a different sort of book stood tall for me and it is Amateurs in Eden by Joanna Hodgkin.

I’m always drawn to the books by or about the women. During the time we’re looking at (the second half of the twentieth century) the writers and critics were mainly men. But virtually all of those men had wives, most of them had several, and it seems to have taken far longer for their side of the story to become public. That’s why I was drawn to Amateurs in Eden, a splendid title, because it is narrowly centred on the decade of marriage between Lawrence Durrell and his first wife, Nancy Myers. They were childhood sweethearts who perhaps married a little too young, even for the time, and travelled around Europe together before their daughter, Penelope, was born.

The important fact, not obvious to me before I opened the book, is that Joanna Hodgkin is also a daughter of Nancy Myers, and a half-sister of Penelope. That’s right, after Nancy divorced Larry, she married a journalist called Edward Hodgkin and the family settled for a time in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, for a somewhat steadier pace of life: Nancy, Edward, Penelope and Joanna.

As with any family, and more especially one with such literary credentials, there were difficulties in relationships between the parents and the siblings, and between the parents themselves. It seems finally to have been the death of Penelope in 2010 that freed Joanna to publish the book that the pair had been working on for a few years. The book is dedicated to Penelope but is really an account of their mother Nancy’s life, especially her life with Lawrence Durrell.

As the superstar writer, Larry had his own books in which to expound on his life, even if he concealed much of it inside fiction. And he also had books written about him, and collections of letters published. In many of these letters, Larry’s friends comment on how “quiet” Nancy was. It is this book that sets the record straight. Quiet, well, perhaps, but compared to legends like Henry Miller and Anais Nin, most of us would look quiet.

This is my favourite find so far on the Larry Durrell trail, as I get to know the man, and the many women he knew. But Nancy is one of a very small number of women he married, and they spent many happy younger years together in England before setting off across Europe for Corfu. Nancy holds a special place in Larry’s life, and deserves to recognised in her own right. Please do get a copy of this book: it is strongly recommended and helps to understand Larry and Nancy.