The Durrell School of Corfu was founded in 2002, and for fuller details of its history and its activities, click here. DSC, as it is usually known, will be the host and act as the centre for your visit.

The actual premises are relatively small, but wonderfully located on the second floor of an old Venetian block over looking one of the colourful and lively ancient little crooked streets in Old Town Corfu - a marvellously evocative setting.

The main room is the DSC library; it serves not only scholars, but also the local population who are members. Its collection concentrates, along with the works of the Durrell brothers, on modern Greek literature, history, and sociology; biography; travel writing; British and American fiction; and literary history and criticism.

The Library is also designed as a meeting/workshop room (with multi-media projection capabilities), where DSC's own international seminars are held. The Library will be where your workshop meetings will take place.

There are also a small lounge/sitting area, DSC's main office, and kitchen and washroom facilities adjoining the Library.

DSC is about a 10-minute walk from your hotel.

the entrance to DSC

Assisting for DSC on your visit will be Alexina Ashcroft, the Administrative Director of DSC; Dr. James Gifford, Director of the University Core at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver, an expert on the works of Lawrence Durrell, and a regular visitor to DSC; and Dr. Mark Morris of the University of Alberta, who both holds a PhD in, and teaches, creative writing, and who led the travel writing workshop at DSC in 2008.
You will also have the opportunity to meet Richard Pine, who founded the School and is its Academic Director, and who has written the definitive critical study of Lawrence Durrell.

You will be staying in the Cavalieri Hotel, which is in downtown Old Corfu, looking out over the water front and one of the main social areas of the Old Town.

The building was originally a 17th century nobleman's mansion, belonging to the family of Count Flamburiari. It has recently been renovated, and is rightly considered one of the most comfortable hotels in Old Corfu.

It is within walking distance of the Durrell School, and virtually anywhere in the Old Town, and makes a wonderful base for exploring.

In addition to the usual facilities, the hotel has a roof garden, a lounge and bar area, and a new Roof Terrace with views over the water front, and across the sea to the mountains of Albania. Lights meals, snacks, drinks, and ice cream are available on the Terrace every evening.

All the bedrooms are air-conditioned, and have their own en-suite bathrooms (hair-dryers are supplied).

Breakfasts (included in the room charge) are buffet-style; continental breakfasts can also be served in the rooms.

The hotel has internet access.

Corfu Old Town, with a population of around 30,000, is magical, and a wonderful place for writing inspiration!

It is built on a little promontory, so it is bordered on three sides by the sea, and dominated by two forts - the 'Old' Fort, which dates back 1500 years but whose extant buildings date from the 16th century, and the 'New' Fort, with its late 16th buildings added to by the British and the French.

The Old Town itself, though, has an entirely Venetian feel, and sometimes reminds me of wandering around a Venice where the canals have been removed, and the sidewalks then pushed together - for there are lots of wonderful winding little streets to explore, and the architecture is largely renaissance or early modern - so it's a bit like walking back into a Romeo and Juliet era.

The oldest part of the town (where the Durrell School is situated) is full of little shops and stalls, catering to both locals and tourists - Corfu silver is quite famous and quite distinctive, and not that expensive, and is well worth looking at for presents and souvenirs.

The hotel is on the edge of the oldest part of town, and looks out on the broad esplanade, with its early 19th century buildings, walks, and parks, all bordering the sea front. This area, being a little more open than the old crooked Venetian streets behind it, is the social hub of Corfu for the local population - you'll see families gathering here in the evening, to eat out or have drink, or just to promenade up and down - a great atmosphere, and those at the Durrell School usually end up here for a pre-supper drink!

You might even catch a cricket game on the esplanade on weekends, as this is the only place where cricket is regularly played in Greece, reflecting the legacy of the British occupation of the island. 

Corfuans (Corfiots to the locals) love eating out, so there are many good and inexpensive restaurants. Eating out means eating out, too, as the very warm temperatures, and the lack of any motor traffic, means that you can sit outside for lunch and supper, and most Corfiots do. Supper is very much a social occasion, as well as a gastronomical one.

As the sun sets around 8:50 pm (it rises at around 6:15 in July), and as European evening meal times are much later than North American equivalents, that usually means your supper lasts well into the night, which, in the well-lit Old Town, adds a magic of its own.

Food styles are primarily Greek, especially in the middle price range, and concentrate in particular on salads, fish, and lamb dishes, though the variety is considerable. The wine is plentiful and cheap (and, in the Greek style, slightly resinous), and you should be able to eat and drink very well for $35 a day. The Durrell School has a number of favourite affordable restaurants in the Old Town which we would enjoy introducing you to. Our experience is that visitors are usually surprised at how well (and how much!) they can eat on a simple budget in Corfu. The variety of most menus means that vegetarians and those with allergies usually have a wide choice.

There are also some very fine and expensive restaurants for those who wish to experience very high quality cuisine; again, the Durrell School can provide you with information on where to find them, and what their specialties are.

If you prefer to buy your own food, there are plenty of stores in the Old Town to do so, with a lot of fresh local produce usually available. Prices are broadly compatible with those in a North American supermarket.

All other supplies (such as toiletries) are similarly easily available, at prices equivalent to North American supermarkets.

The most exciting field trip that the Durrell school organizes is to the World Heritage Site of Butrint. This ancient town, now ruined, is in Albania, exactly opposite Corfu island.

It is set beside a small inland salt-water lake (now used for mussel fishing) connected to the sea by a small estuary. The inland waters were ideal for sheltering pre-industrial fleets, and the town site has been occupied by the ancient Greeks (from Homeric times), Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Turks, and all have left their architecture behind.

The massive walls circling the site are largely ancient Greek, with Venetian additions; the forum is Roman; the cathedral, Byzantine; the fort, Turkish; the amphitheatre, both Greek and Roman; and the surroundings pure rural Albania.

Many Roman senators had their summer villas in the area (Cicero records visiting some of them), and to visit Butrint is to physically walk through 3,000 years of Mediterranean history - an extraordinary experience enhanced by the sheer physical beauty of the area.

Not only will you visit this remarkable site, but getting there is almost as evocative. The ferry crosses Homer's 'wine dark sea', with the Greek and Albanian mountains on the far shore, and takes you to a small Albanian port, a 20 minute or so taxi ride from the World Heritage Site.

Even such a small glimpse of Albania is fascinating, for this is a country in transition: long a fierce communist dictatorship, almost completely cut off from the rest of Europe, it is now a country modernizing itself to be able to eventually join the European Union.

Much of it remains backward, but all around you will see signs of new life quite literally going up, often in new houses partly funded by family members working abroad.

language: Greek is the language of Corfu, though the island has long had ties and connections with the UK, and some of the island's resorts are favourite UK destinations, so basic English is spoken in most places (though it can be pretty basic), and if required a good English speaker can almost invariably be found.

In other words, you should have no problems getting around or finding what you want; however, even a smattering of Greek (if just to greet or to say thank-you), is greatly appreciated by the islanders!

health insurance: Travel (health) insurance is essential, and should be arranged before your trip. A visit to hospital can be very expensive for those not in the European Union.

Health facilities in Corfu are very good - most doctors speak English, and many have trained in the UK.