Peel Me a Lotus

I loved Polly Samson’s book ‘ A theatre for dreamers ‘ and was eager to read Charmian Clift’s own account of her own life on Hydra in the fifties. It did not disappoint, 
For anyone who has ever visited the Greek islands (Hydra or Symi in particular ) and wondered how they came to be and who walked those worn pavements. Read this preferably with the sun shining and a blue sea to hand.

Charmain Clift's memoir of moving with her writer-husband George Johnson and their children to Greece in the early 1950s. Her vivid writing immerses us along with her and her family into peasant life on an impoverished Greek island. Her two companion memoirs (Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus) are insightful, charming, and funny.  Despite occurring only decades ago, life there mirrors peasant life centuries ago. In Peel Me a Lotus, the family moves from the tiny island of Kalymnos to Hydra, where they buy a house and join a bohemian community of writers and artists. A charming read for anyone enjoying memoirs about creating family life in strange places long before modern tourism descended on Greece.

"At least our way of life is of our own choosing."  Oh, man.  Can I ever relate.  Australian authors settle on Hydra in the 1950s (pre-tourism) where they raise their family and write enough to live.  Clift's writing is absolutely delectable...she had me hanging onto every word.  She vividly describes the topography, scenery, food, friendships, swimming, children being children and sharing community.  As I split my time between Canada and Europe I found myself chuckling and nodding in agreement to shared experiences from buying a home to renovating to bumbling with a foreign language to village life on the Mediterranean.  Her delightful descriptions of the Pancreatic Juices are brilliant and spot on!  We, too, hear lunatic donkeys at night.  And Creon...we also know a Creon!  

"Shedding so much we are stripped to our bare selves, lighter, freer...".  Wow.  Exactly my feelings when in Croatia where daily life is so similar, much simpler.  Clift writes with such detail it is easy to visualize every single nuance, every gesture, every scene.  She captivated me and took my breath away as well!  Sure, her family encountered problems.  Not everything goes smoothly.  But one's happy place is well worth working for.  As she explains, the rewards highly outweigh the challenges.  

Whether you are an expat, traveler or dream about travel (especially during these covid times) please, please read this entrancing book.  I cannot possibly recommend it highly enough.  Such a lovely treat!  I just love reading about those who push for their dreams and adventures.

My sincere thank you to Muswell Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this fabulous book!

The companion book to Mermaid Singing.  In Mermaid singing the family move from Australia to a small Greek island in the 1950's. In this one, the follow up, they move again, to an even smaller Greek island.

The times and the characters are well drawn, and you really understand how harsh it was to live there at the time, as a local but also as a family of outsiders.

A charming and enjoyable read.

Beautiful book about Cliffs travel memoir in Greece, their humour and vivid experiences shone through, felt like I was right there with them. Would recommend

Peel me a Lotus
The second book from Charmian Clift, with a very good introduction and explanation from Polly Samson. I got a lot more from Polly’s involvement, insight and description in this book than I did from the first. It certainly set the scene and helped to explain the very dramatic alteration in style, voice and approach from Charmian’s first novel, Mermaid Singing. Whilst the first was light-hearted, inspirational and a joy to read, this felt much darker, sadder and harder to get through. 
Sadly, for me, the move to another island (Hydra) with an ex-pat/foreigner community already installed really changed the direction of this book and the family’s life. Instead of integrating into Greek life and really embracing the island community I felt the incomers simply set themselves up as ex-pats and as a result struggled to enjoy the same experience as they had on Kalymnos. Some of the background from Polly about events that followed their departure from Hydra and ‘liaisons’ that were ongoing at the time of writing but are not explicitly included in the book may also help to explain the sharpness, the lack of ‘love’ for this second stage adventure. I still enjoyed the book and am glad I read it, but it wasn’t as much of a delight as the first and definitely needs Polly’s input to make sense of things.

I requested Peel Me A Lotus by Charmian Clift as I read Polly Samson’s A Theatre For Dreamers earlier in the year and enjoyed it immensely. Peel Me A Lotus was the inspiration for Samson’s novel and it was wonderful to read what led her to writing her own book. The addition of Samson’s introduction sets the context well and I loved reading about the purchase of their home on the Greek island of Hydra and subsequent life on the island in the 1960s.

I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy books that take you away to far flung places and would particularly recommend if you also enjoyed Polly Samson’s novel.