<P><B>A fascinating biography of a turbulent literary marriage and of an unusual woman struggling to live an independent life</B></P><P>As the first wife of Lawrence Durrell, author of <I>The Alexandria Quartet</I>, Nancy Durrell has been a constant presence in the biographies of Durrell and others in the Bloomsbury set, yet always an enigmatic figure. To her husband, she was his introduction to London bohemian life and his companion during his formative years; to Anais Nin she was a mystery, famous for her quiet reserve; and to Henry Miller she was a friend and fellow artist. Here at last is her story. Joanna Hodgkin retraces her mother's fascinating life: the escape from her toxic and mysterious family; the years in bohemian literary London and Paris in the 1930s; marriage to Durrell and their discovery of the "Eden" of prewar Corfu; and her desperate struggle to survive in Palestine alone with a small child as the British Mandate collapsed. This is a riveting portrait of love, loss, and courage in a vanished world.