Reflections on a Marine Venus. A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes

'How pleasant ... to meet Mr Durrell, gloating over his enjoyment of a Greek island ! His book is too various to be summarised : it expresses a poet's intoxication with landscape, a humanist's appetite for history, and an eye for character worthy of a novelist. He is witty, he is shrewd, he is effectively eloquent. He wafts us over a lively range of periods and subjects, communicating his gusto for Greek ruins, wild flowers, Patmian monks, forged bus tickets, the violet, alluring sea, and pilgrimages embellished by traditional dancing beside barbecues ...
He excites a longing to leave for Rhodes at once.'