Although Durrell was generally regarded as a bubbly, pleasant man, he possessed a cruel, dark side, and his brilliantly creative writer's life was indeed labyrinthine. Born in India he lived thereafter in a Tibet of the mind. From school in gloomy England he fled to exile in Greece and the Mediterranean. He was an accomplished poet, and his lyrical books about the Mediterranean are among the best of their kind. His publication of The Alexandria Quartet, conceived in wartime Egypt, brought fame with its exploration of modern love and experimental form. His last great novel cycle, The Avignon Quintet, has intrigued with its formal complexity and compelling mystery - the story of his generation through peace and war. Wine and sun inspired him, and sex and madness obsessed him as sources of creativity. His life was marred by the tragic suicide of his daughter and the sudden death of his wife, and posthumous charges of incest cast a shadow over his memory.