In 1954 Charmian Clift and George Johnston, a pair of Australian writers, left grey post-war London and set off for Greece. They first settled on the tiny island of Kalymnos, and then on Hydra, where they bought a house. Their plan: to live simply and focus on creating, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. The reality: struggling with the chaos of home life and three children, they became the center of an informal community of artists and writers. The group was later joined by Leonard Cohen, who became their tenant, and his girlfriend, Marianne Ihlen.

“They drank more than other people, they wrote more, they got sick more, they got well more, they cursed more, they blessed more, and they helped a great deal more. They were an inspiration,” is how Cohen later described Clift and Johnston.

Peel Me a Lotus is a classic, a moving story about daily life on the sun-bathed island of Hydra in the 1950s, published for the first time in Polish. Clift’s other book about Greece, Mermaid Singing, will be released soon.