The Water and the Wine

Travel Guide

Hydra

This book is set mostly on Hydra, Greece in the 1960s and tells the story of a year on the island when Leonard Cohen was living there and in love with Marianne, the woman immortalized in his songs. The author has a unique perspective as she was there at the time – the little daughter of one of the couples who, like Leonard Cohen, had moved to Hydra to be part of its community of artists and writers.

It’s the 1960s and a group of young writers and artists gather on the Greek Island of Hydra, Leonard Cohen is at the start of his career and in love with Marianne, who is also muse to her ex-husband, Axel. Australian authors George Johnston and Charmian Clift join the community, hoping to mend their broken marriage. However Greece is overtaken by a military junta and the artistic idyl is threatened.

This is a fictional account of real events.

“Like its artistic inhabitants, Hydra was creative. It painted the earth with purple orchids, wrote itself onto the history books and even made its own music: the him of chatter in the air; the clink of coffee cups at the harbour cafe , and the light bells on the donkeys as they ambled along the cobbles. Cocks crowed their tough chorus and the single bell chapel at the Monastery of the Virgin’s Assumption added its tunny percussion on the hour.