Marine Venus and Other Animals
I breathlessly dumped my clutch of dog-eared books into the author’s receptive lap. In confusion I said, ‘If you do sign my books I won’t tell you I read them as a little girl.’ Whereupon the author rejoined, ‘Very well, so long as you didn’t bring me my brother’s books to be autographed!’ Immediately he inscribed the first one, ‘To The Ideal Fan, by Larry Durrell, Athens, 1975’.
