The Spoken Word: Lawrence Durrell

The year 2012 marks the centenary of the birth of novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell, one of the leading writers of the postwar years. Born in India and resident at various times in England, Greece, Egypt, Cyprus, and France, Durrell was a cosmopolitan, whose work was greatly influenced by the Mediterranean places and cultures he experienced. His most famous work is The Alexandria Quartet, a series of novels produced in rapid succession between 1957 and 1960. This disc contains a selection of previously unreleased historic BBC broadcasts in which Durrell reads his poetry and discusses his life and work, together with a unique pair of private recordings of Durrell as jazz pianist and vocalist.