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Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964
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''Their years in the Aegean may have been half perfect at best, but it was on Hydra that they connected to a place, a lifestyle and a community that allowed them to live and express themselves intensely, and as they wished. They refused to believe their dreams were an illusion, or that boldness, ambition and a leap-of-faith might not allow them to reach beyond the constraints of their birthright'.

'Half the Perfect World tells the story of the post-war international artist community that formed on the Greek island of Hydra. Most famously, it included renowned singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and his partner Marianne Ihlen, as well as many other artists and writers including the Australian literary couple, Charmian Clift and George Johnston, who fostered this fabled colony.

'Drawing on many previously unseen letters, manuscripts and diaries, and richly illustrated by the eyewitness photographs of LIFE magazine photo-journalist James Burke, Half the Perfect World reveals the private lives and relationships of the Hydra expatriates. It charts the promise of a creative life that drew many of them to the island, and documents the fracturing of the community as it came under pressure from personal ambitions and wider social changes. For all the unrealised youthful ambitions, internal strife and personal tragedy that attends this story, the authors nonetheless find that the example of these writers, dreamers and drifters continues to resonate and inspire.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • In May 2019, it was reported that Half the Perfect World would be adapted for film. The film adaptation rights were acquired by Cascade Films. (Books + Publishing News)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Clayton, Murrumbeena - Oakleigh - Springvale area, Melbourne South East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Monash University Publishing , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 6592662667708491635.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 304p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 1st October 2018

      ISBN: 9781925523096

Works about this Work

Anne Pender Review of Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell, Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Anne Pender , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , April no. 3 2020; (p. 167-171)

— Review of Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2018 multi chapter work biography
'In 2016, I was one of a fortunate group of scholars who travelled to the Greek island of Hydra, to participate in a conference hosted by Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell. We gathered at the Bratsera Hotel, a renovated sponge factory located a short walk from the ferry terminal. After the fumes and noisy chaos of Athens the peace of carless Hydra with its pristine turquoise seas and mountain views was magnificent. The summer tourists were gone and we had the hotel to ourselves. Our group of scholars and writers, including Susan Johnson and Meaghan Delahunt, were entertained in the courtyard of the house that once belonged to George Johnston and Charmian Clift, a few streets up the hill from our lodgings, not far from the famous Douskos Taverna. A young Greek couple screened a documentary they had made about the two Australian writers who had made Hydra their home for nine years, as we sat outside under the grapevines in the evening. The Johnston–Clift house is almost unchanged since the 1960s but is now worth millions of euros. Hydra is close enough to Athens for daytrips and its proximity makes it highly attractive for wealthy Athenians as a weekend escape. There is not much to remind the visitor of the Australian writers, however, except that a few local people remember them, and it was a privilege to listen to their recollections at the conference. In fact, Leonard Cohen’s residency on the island, at the same time as Clift and Johnston, has eclipsed that of the Australians, with many a tourist climbing the steep hill through the labyrinth of alleyways in order to get a glimpse of the house in which Cohen wrote two of his books and lived with Marianne Ihlen. (Introduction)
A World Less Than Perfect Unravels in Tale of Aussie Authors’ Hydra Idyll Alex Economou , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: Neos Kosmos , February 2020;

'It is worth bearing in mind that a classic of the post-war Australian novel, My Brother Jack, owes its existence to the incredible patience and generosity of a grocery store/kafenion owner on the island of Hydra.' (Introduction)

Book of Expat Artist Community on Hydra Earns PM’s Literary Award 2019 single work column
— Appears in: Neos Kosmos , October 2019;
Three Ways of Looking at Kalymnos : Charmian Clift’s Differing Versions of One Greek Island Shilo Previti , Jamie Walters , David Roessel , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;
'In 1951, married Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, feeling stifled by postwar conservatism, left Sydney behind to find a more ‘authentic’ way of living. They went first to London, the mecca for Australian literary expatriates, where there was no shortage of work and culture, but where they quickly felt trapped by the ‘rat-race’ mentality of a modern city. So in 1954 they left again, this time for the Greek islands, disposing of material possessions and cutting many of their personal ties. Hoping for a permanent shift from mundane to romantic, they embraced the shining ideals offered by Greek island life: other-worldly beauty; ‘simple’ Greek lifestyles, and freedom from the many pressures of the ‘real’ world.' (Introduction)
Humanitarian Aid Among Aegean Neighbours : Joice NanKivell Loch’s A Fringe of Blue Tanya Dalziell , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'Joice NanKivell Loch’s life was dedicated to helping others. It was a role she wrote about in her autobiography, A Fringe of Blue (1968), which she completed with assistance from friends while recovering after a bad fall from a worm-eaten balcony of the Byzantine tower on the Athos peninsula in eastern Greece where she had lived for most of the preceding four decades. This essay thinks concurrently about her two commitments—to writing and to humanitarian work—as they come together in A Fringe of Blue. Of particular interest are long sections of NanKivell Loch’s autobiography that have as their focus her experiences in the Aegean, where she made her home and found herself a neighbour to refugees she had initially set out to assist.'  (Publication abstract)

Review of Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964, by Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell Susan Lever , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , December vol. 33 no. 4 2018;

— Review of Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2018 multi chapter work biography
Vanished Bohemia Emma Fajgenbaum , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Arena Magazine , February no. 158 2019; (p. 56-58)

— Review of Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2018 multi chapter work biography

'My Brother Jack, George Johnston’s tilt at the Great Australian Novel, is distinguished for being penned from afar—not from Patrick White’s England, nor from Christina Stead’s adopted America, but from a place altogether more foreign and remote: the island of Hydra in Greece’s Saronic Gulf.'  (Introduction)

Anne Pender Review of Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell, Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Anne Pender , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , April no. 3 2020; (p. 167-171)

— Review of Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2018 multi chapter work biography
'In 2016, I was one of a fortunate group of scholars who travelled to the Greek island of Hydra, to participate in a conference hosted by Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell. We gathered at the Bratsera Hotel, a renovated sponge factory located a short walk from the ferry terminal. After the fumes and noisy chaos of Athens the peace of carless Hydra with its pristine turquoise seas and mountain views was magnificent. The summer tourists were gone and we had the hotel to ourselves. Our group of scholars and writers, including Susan Johnson and Meaghan Delahunt, were entertained in the courtyard of the house that once belonged to George Johnston and Charmian Clift, a few streets up the hill from our lodgings, not far from the famous Douskos Taverna. A young Greek couple screened a documentary they had made about the two Australian writers who had made Hydra their home for nine years, as we sat outside under the grapevines in the evening. The Johnston–Clift house is almost unchanged since the 1960s but is now worth millions of euros. Hydra is close enough to Athens for daytrips and its proximity makes it highly attractive for wealthy Athenians as a weekend escape. There is not much to remind the visitor of the Australian writers, however, except that a few local people remember them, and it was a privilege to listen to their recollections at the conference. In fact, Leonard Cohen’s residency on the island, at the same time as Clift and Johnston, has eclipsed that of the Australians, with many a tourist climbing the steep hill through the labyrinth of alleyways in order to get a glimpse of the house in which Cohen wrote two of his books and lived with Marianne Ihlen. (Introduction)
The Audacious Bite of Decision' : Hydra's Cast of Characters Brian Matthews , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 406 2018; (p. 35-36)

'In August 1964, Charmian Clift returned to Australia from the Greek island of Hydra after nearly fourteen years abroad. As Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell portray her return – a description based, as always in this book, on solid or at least reasonably persuasive evidence – she ‘was leaving her beloved Hydra forever, with the pain of her departure sharpened by the sting of humiliation and exile’. By the time the return voyage had begun, she later recalled, ‘the audacious bite of decision has long since been blunted … The freshness of the adventure has worn off and uncertainty, alas, is practically all that remains.’' (Introduction)

Humanitarian Aid Among Aegean Neighbours : Joice NanKivell Loch’s A Fringe of Blue Tanya Dalziell , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'Joice NanKivell Loch’s life was dedicated to helping others. It was a role she wrote about in her autobiography, A Fringe of Blue (1968), which she completed with assistance from friends while recovering after a bad fall from a worm-eaten balcony of the Byzantine tower on the Athos peninsula in eastern Greece where she had lived for most of the preceding four decades. This essay thinks concurrently about her two commitments—to writing and to humanitarian work—as they come together in A Fringe of Blue. Of particular interest are long sections of NanKivell Loch’s autobiography that have as their focus her experiences in the Aegean, where she made her home and found herself a neighbour to refugees she had initially set out to assist.'  (Publication abstract)

Three Ways of Looking at Kalymnos : Charmian Clift’s Differing Versions of One Greek Island Shilo Previti , Jamie Walters , David Roessel , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;
'In 1951, married Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, feeling stifled by postwar conservatism, left Sydney behind to find a more ‘authentic’ way of living. They went first to London, the mecca for Australian literary expatriates, where there was no shortage of work and culture, but where they quickly felt trapped by the ‘rat-race’ mentality of a modern city. So in 1954 they left again, this time for the Greek islands, disposing of material possessions and cutting many of their personal ties. Hoping for a permanent shift from mundane to romantic, they embraced the shining ideals offered by Greek island life: other-worldly beauty; ‘simple’ Greek lifestyles, and freedom from the many pressures of the ‘real’ world.' (Introduction)
Book of Expat Artist Community on Hydra Earns PM’s Literary Award 2019 single work column
— Appears in: Neos Kosmos , October 2019;
A World Less Than Perfect Unravels in Tale of Aussie Authors’ Hydra Idyll Alex Economou , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: Neos Kosmos , February 2020;

'It is worth bearing in mind that a classic of the post-war Australian novel, My Brother Jack, owes its existence to the incredible patience and generosity of a grocery store/kafenion owner on the island of Hydra.' (Introduction)

Last amended 23 Oct 2019 11:15:39
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  • 1955-1964
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