Editing Lawrence Durrell (section)

===First marriage and Durrell's move to Corfu===
On 22 January 1935, Durrell married art student Nancy Isobel Myers (1912–1983), with whom he briefly ran a photographic studio in London.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Michael|last=Haag|title=Only the City is Real: Lawrence Durrell's Journey to Alexandria|journal=Alif|volume=26|year=2006|pages=39–47}}</ref> It was the first of his four marriages.<ref>{{cite book | last=MacNiven| first=Ian S.| title=Lawrence Durrell: A Biography| publisher=Faber and Faber|location=London| year=1998| isbn=0-571-17248-2}} p. xiii.</ref> Durrell was always unhappy in England, and in March of that year he persuaded his new wife, and his mother and younger siblings, to move to the Greek island of Corfu. There they could live more economically and escape both the English weather, and what Durrell considered the stultifying English culture, which he described as "the English death".<ref>Anna Lillios, "Lawrence Durrell", in ''Magill's Survey of World Literature'', volume '''7''', pp. 2334–2342; Salem Press, Inc., 1995</ref>

That same year Durrell's first novel, ''[[Pied Piper of Lovers]]'', was published by [[Orion Publishing Group|Cassell]]. Around this time he chanced upon a copy of [[Henry Miller]]'s 1934 novel ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]''.<ref name="durrell.in.CA"/> After reading it, he wrote to Miller, expressing intense admiration for his novel. Durrell's letter sparked an enduring friendship<ref name="durrell.in.CA"/> and mutually critical relationship that spanned 45 years. Durrell's next novel, ''[[Panic Spring]]'', was strongly influenced by Miller's work,<ref name="orend">Karl Orend, "New Bibles", ''Times Literary Supplement'' 22 August 2008 p 15</ref> while his 1938 novel ''[[The Black Book (1938 novel)|The Black Book]]'' abounded with "[[four-letter word]]s... grotesques,... [and] its mood equally as apocalyptic" as ''Tropic''.<ref name="orend"/>

In Corfu, Lawrence and Nancy lived together in [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] style. For the first few months, the couple lived with the rest of the Durrell family in the Villa Anemoyanni at [[Kontokali]]. In early 1936, Durrell and Nancy moved to the White House, a fisherman's cottage on the shore of Corfu's northeastern coast at [[Kalami, Corfu|Kalami]], then a tiny fishing village. The Durrell family's friend [[Theodore Stephanides]], a Greek doctor, scientist and poet, was a frequent guest, and Miller stayed at the White House in 1939.

Durrell fictionalised this period of his sojourn on Corfu in the lyrical novel ''Prospero's Cell''. His younger brother [[Gerald Durrell]], who became a naturalist, published his own version in his memoir ''[[My Family and Other Animals]]'' (1954) and in the following two books of Gerald's so-called ''Corfu Trilogy'', published in 1969 and 1978. Gerald describes Lawrence as living permanently with his mother and siblings — his wife Nancy is not mentioned at all. Lawrence, in his turn, refers only briefly to his brother Leslie, and he does not mention that his mother and two other siblings were also living on Corfu in those years. The accounts cover a few of the same topics; for example, both Gerald and Lawrence describe the roles played in their lives by the Corfiot taxi driver Spyros Halikiopoulos and Theodore Stephanides. In Corfu, Lawrence became friends with [[Marie Aspioti]], with whom he cooperated in the publication of ''Lear's Corfu''.<ref name="Lillios2004">{{Cite book | last = Lillios | first = Anna | title = Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World | publisher = Susquehanna University Press | year = 2004 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xevl3TA26KUC | isbn =978-1575910765 | access-date = 26 June 2013}}</ref>{{rp|260}}