Editing Lawrence Durrell (section)

==Later years, literary influences, attitudes and reputation==
A longtime smoker, Durrell suffered from [[emphysema]] for many years. He died of a [[stroke]] at his house in Sommières in November 1990, and was buried in the churchyard of the Chapelle St-Julien de Montredon in Sommières.

He was predeceased by his younger daughter, Sappho Jane, who took her own life in 1985 at the age of 33. After Durrell's death, it emerged that Sappho's diaries included allusions to an alleged incestuous relationship with her father.<ref name=SD&LDperJR>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/XnLcdzWG8Ws|title=Inside Story: Daddy Dearest - The writer Lawrence Durrell cast a long, dark shadow over the short and troubled life of his daughter, Sappho|author=Jay Rayner|date=14 September 1991|work=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|via=[[Google Groups]]|access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Roger|last=Cohen|title=A Daughter's Intimations|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/14/books/no-headline-011291.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=14 August 1991|access-date=11 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12025336.a-man-pursued-by-furies/|title=A man pursued by furies (a review of Bowker's biography)|work=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]|date=14 December 1996|access-date=19 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Redwine|first=Bruce|title=Tales of Incest: The Agony of Saph and Pa Durrell|publisher=www.academia.edu}}</ref>

===Durrell's government service and his attitudes===
Durrell worked for several years in the service of the [[Foreign Office]]. He was senior press officer to the British embassies in Athens and Cairo, press attaché in Alexandria and Belgrade, and director of the British Institutes in [[Kalamata]], Greece, and [[Córdoba, Argentina|Córdoba]], Argentina. He was also director of Public Relations in the [[Dodecanese Islands]] and on Cyprus. He later refused an honour as a [[Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George]], because he felt his "conservative, reactionary and right-wing" political views might be a cause for embarrassment.<ref name="Lillios2004"/>{{rp|185}} Durrell's works of humour, ''Esprit de Corps'' and ''Stiff Upper Lip'', are about life in the [[Diplomacy|diplomatic]] corps, particularly in [[Serbia]]. He claimed to have disliked both Egypt and Argentina,<ref>{{cite report |title=Lawrence Durrell in Cyprus: A Philhellene against Enosis |location=Epos |date=2003 |author=José Ruiz Mas |url=http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?pid=bibliuned:Epos-06540BA4-FC08-586D-9536-77A561E422D8&dsID=PDF |page=230 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310163023/http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?pid=bibliuned%3AEpos-06540BA4-FC08-586D-9536-77A561E422D8&dsID=PDF |archive-date=10 March 2012 }}</ref> although not nearly so much as he disliked Yugoslavia.

===Durrell's poetry===
Durrell's poetry has been overshadowed by his novels, but [[Peter Porter (poet)|Peter Porter]], in his introduction to a ''Selected Poems'', calls Durrell "One of the best [poets] of the past hundred years. And one of the most enjoyable."<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Porter|editor-first=Peter|title=Lawrence Durrell: Selected Poems|publisher=Faber and Faber|year=2006}}</ref> Porter describes Durrell's poetry: "Always beautiful as sound and syntax. Its innovation lies in its refusal to be more high-minded than the things it records, together with its handling of the whole lexicon of language."<ref>{{harvnb|Porter|2006|p=xxi}}</ref>