Clea (Abridged)

He eventually persuaded his family to move to Corfu: these years were recorded by his brother Gerald in My Family and Other Animals (1956) - it was like living in one of the more flamboyant and comic operas, he notes. During the 1930s he lived in Bohemian Paris and was friend and collaborator of Henry Miller. Later he spent much of his time as a journalist, teacher and diplomat in the Middle East. He began writing early and published an unsuccessful first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers, in 1932. A second, Panic Spring (1937) appeared under a pseudonym. The third, The Black Book (1938) was a powerful erotic work published in Paris. He became noted as a poet and wrote travel books, plays, critical works and a childrenÕs novel. In 1957 he published Justine, the first volume of his ambitious The Alexandria Quartet, which mad him famous. Balthazar and Mountolive followed in 1958, Clea in 1960.