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Corfu has featured and been the backdrop of many books and movies from Homer to the Durrells. Here is a selection to inspire and for you to enjoy before you arrive:
IN LITERATURE
British naturalist Gerald Durrell wrote three books about his 1935–1940 childhood on Corfu: My Family and Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and Relatives; and The Garden of the Gods. His brother, literary author Lawrence Durrell, also wrote a volume about Corfu: Prospero’s Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra (Corfu).
Mary Stewart’s novel This Rough Magic is set in Corfu.
Prospero’s island in Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, is often said to have been based on Corfu.
Letitia Landon twice wrote of Corfu as an island paradise, the first poem appeared in Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835 and the second in that for 1838. A third poem of hers was published in the scrap book for 1837.
Humbert Humbert’s first love, Annabel Leigh, is said to have died of typhus in Corfu in a scene of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.
Albert Cohen wrote three books which are partially or entirely set in Corfu. They are: Mangeclous, Les Valeureux, and Belle du Seigneur. Cohen himself was born on the island.
Voltaire references two monks from Corfu in Chapter XXVIII of Candide
IN FILM
Corfu’s natural beauty hasn’t gone unnoticed by the film industry it has been the setting for several movies. If you would like to watch some movies filmed on Corfu before you arrive, take a look at this list below.
Corfu was one of the main locations featured in the 1970 film The Executioner starring George Peppard and Joan Collins.
Corfu was one of the settings of The Burglars, a 1971 film starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Omar Sharif.
Much of the 1978 Billy Wilder film Fedora is set in Corfu and filmed on location.
The 1981 James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only has a number of scenes filmed in Corfu. The most memorable scene of the film to be bound with the island is of the underwater ancient Greek temple, with a huge turtle swimming in front of the camera; a casino scene was also filmed at the Achilleion. ther scenes filmed here include those tracing ‘Melina’ and James’ walk through the city’s streets, and Melina being greeted by Bond at Pontikonisi island. A major action element was filmed on the largest sandy beach on the island, Issos Beach in Agios Georgios South, involving a beach buggy chase along the dunes. The film’s scene depicting a Greek wedding was filmed at the Bouas-Danilia traditional village (Μπούας Δανίλια παραδοσιακό χωριό). Action scenes were also filmed at Neo Frourio.
The 1984 Greek film “Η Τιμή της Αγάπης” (The Price of Love), directed by Tonia Marketaki is a tragic love story that takes Corfu. It is based on the novel Honour and Money by Konstantinos Theotokis.
Corfu is also the setting of a 1987 BBC TV series version, and a 2005 BBC movie version, of My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell’s book about his childhood in Corfu in the late 1930s
The Gaze of the Gorgon (1992): a poem-film for BBC television by British poet Tony Harrison. The film examines the politics of conflict in the 20th century using the Gorgon as a metaphor.
The Countess of Corfu (Greek: Η Κόμησσα Της Κέρκυρας), a 1972 film starring Rena Vlahopoulou and Alekos Alexandrakis, was filmed in Corfu.
ITV aired a TV series, named The Durrells in Corfu, in April 2016 and ultimately lasting four seasons, concluding in May 2019. It was a biographical series detailing Gerald Durrell’s childhood on Corfu.