Lawrence Durrell - Prospero's Cell. A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corfu (1945; epub)

In the years before World War II, the tourist’s eye seldom strayed farther east than Italy. But as the fashionable set enjoyed its Roman holidays, Lawrence Durrell settled on Corfu, an island jewel with beauty to match the long and fascinating history within its rocky shores. For four years, he fished, drank, and lived with the natives, sheltered from the tumult that was engulfing Europe, until finally he could ignore the world no longer. Durrell left for Alexandria, to serve his country as a wartime diplomat, but never forgot the wonders of Corfu.

With a poet’s grace, Durrell turned his attention to the country that had made him so happy. The result was Prospero’s Cell, a slim volume of endless depths. Like the blue Aegean, Durrell’s book is crystal clear, giving the reader a perfect view straight to the heart of a nation.