HYDRA ON MY MIND
I have been reading two books about the Greek island of Hydra where I was just two weeks ago. The first, Peel Me A Lotus, is by Charmian Clift who moved with her husband and children to Hydra to get away from the modern world just before Leonard Cohen moved to Hydra for the same reason. Until he bought a house of his own he lived with the Charmian and her husband, George Johnston. The second book is Theater for Dreamers by Polly Samson, a novel about this same period in which the narrator is a young woman escaping confining British life. Both of the books capture the beauty of Hydra, the simple and unhurried way of life and the search for the expatriates who have come there to paint, to write, to make music, to be creative and fully alive with all of the problems this creates. The two books make Hydra more than simply a beautiful place.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 