Enraptured by a young woman's account of the landscapes of Greece Henry Miller set off to
explore the Grecian countryside with his friend Lawrence Durrell in 1939. In The Colossus of
Maroussi he describes drinking from sacred springs nearly being trampled to death by sheep and
encountering the flamboyant Greek poet Katsumbalis who 'could galvanize the dead with his
talk'. This lyrical classic of travel writing represented an epiphany in Miller's life and is
the book he would later cite as his favourite.
