By the 1950s, pressure for decolonisation intensified. Lawrence Durrell lived on the island through those turbulent years, working for the British government while writing his book Bitter Lemons.
For years, the book was regarded as the most representative account of the island, which not only acquainted the tourist with the beauties of Cyprus but also provided the necessary historical and political background. Read by all British expatriate residents and visitors, and translated into many languages, Bitter Lemons acquired a “textbook” status.
Published at a time when Britain was already losing its grip on Cyprus, it is now a case study of post-colonial travel writing. Literature and art were called upon to help facilitate and accommodate British political targets. Bitter Lemons discreetly and carefully blunts the Hellenic aspects of Cyprus, presenting it as a multicultural country with its Oriental and Gothic features accentuated. Durrell’s treatment of the history embedded in the place reflects the conflict between the coloniser and the colonised. Nonetheless, in its romantic descriptive approach, it remains a eulogy of the landscape, permeating through its pages the author’s love for Cyprus.
In an interview to the Aegean Review (1987), just before his death, Durrell, torn between his love for the Greeks and his loyalty to the British government, finally admitted that the “disgusting situation in Cyprus was entirely engineered by us”, accepting also his role in “our double-facedness in politics.”
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
The 'Did you Know' series is supported by The Hellenic Initiative Canada.
