Mermaid Singing & Peel Me A Lotus

These two classic travel works by Charmian Clift describing the life she and her Australian family led in Greece in the 1950s are re-released here in one volume to coincide with the publication of Nadia Wheatley’s landmark biography of Charmian.

In ‘Mermaid Singing’ – written during the first miraculous year of discovery – Charmian Clift records the family’s adaptation to the primitive sponge diving island of Kalymnos. As the months go by, Clift captures the rhythm of the seasons and her family’s connection with the island’s ancient myths, with its religious practice, and with the everyday life of the islanders.

‘Peel Me A Lotus’ continues this exploration as she and her family buy a house on the island of Hydra, in the middle of the summer tourist trail.