A Literary Paradise ; Corfu's North-East Coast Is Green, Lager-Lout-Free and Great for Children. Ideal If You're Writing Your Next Novel

Summary

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IT seemed like a good idea at the time. I was struggling to finish my fourth novel, a cheery little tale about a teenage boy with a talking brain tumour, the tumour playing a sort of Falstaff to the boy's Prince Hal. My friend Seema Merchant was working on her first, an upmarket chick-lit confection set among the yummy mummies of Primrose Hill. We were both plagued by our parental duties, prams in the hall playing their traditional role as the mortal enemies of promise. So why not hit a Greek villa and let our partners child- mind amid the olive trees, while we sucked our pencils and created deathless prose?

We found what looked like a suitable villa near St Stephano, on the north-east coast of Corfu, with plenty of room, an inviting pool and a shady gazebo, surely perfect for writing. The journey was about as civilised as you can get, bearing in mind that there were five children involved, ie not very civilised. But nobody vomited and nobody got lost.

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A Literary Paradise ; Corfu's North-East Coast Is Green, Lager-Lout-Free and Great for Children. Ideal If You're Writing Your Next Novel

There is a dispiriting spell on leaving almost any airport, when you think the whole country is made out of concrete and weeds - and locals with faces like collapsed lungs make incomprehensible gestures as you pass - but it wasn't long before we we...

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