Mermaid Singing
1 journaler for this copy...
From Slightly Foxed. 1954, Australians Charmian Clift and George Johnston on the Greek island of Kalymnos.
In the 1950s Australian journalists Charmian Clift and husband George Johnston leave London with their two young children Martin and Shane to spend a year on the island of Kalymnos, with the purpose of writing a book about the sponge divers.
A vivid account of the island and its people - though she never stints on the negative aspects, and not only the plumbing, or lack of it, Clift describes it all so beautifully you want to be there drinking a glass of retsina on the terrace of the spindly yellow house overlooking the harbour.
I didn't know anything about CC so was devasted to learn that she comitted suicide only 14 years after writing this, in her mid forties; her husband didn't live much longer. Daughter Shane loved Greece so much she spoke only Greek, but also killed herself in her early 20s, and son Martin, who became a poet, died too young from too much alcohol. Only Jason, who was born on Hydra, survived.
Link to a long article about Martin I will read later:
http://nadiawheatley.com/remembering-martin-johnston
A vivid account of the island and its people - though she never stints on the negative aspects, and not only the plumbing, or lack of it, Clift describes it all so beautifully you want to be there drinking a glass of retsina on the terrace of the spindly yellow house overlooking the harbour.
I didn't know anything about CC so was devasted to learn that she comitted suicide only 14 years after writing this, in her mid forties; her husband didn't live much longer. Daughter Shane loved Greece so much she spoke only Greek, but also killed herself in her early 20s, and son Martin, who became a poet, died too young from too much alcohol. Only Jason, who was born on Hydra, survived.
Link to a long article about Martin I will read later:
http://nadiawheatley.com/remembering-martin-johnston
