The legacy of writer Charmian Clift continues to endure as her works grow in appreciation over time, with her novel ‘Honour’s Mimic’ set on a Greek island receiving a spotlight via a re-issue over 60 years on from its initial publication.
Clift is a figure who has become synonymous with Greece, having produced multiple works based on her experiences living there with her most famous being her memoirs ‘Peel Me a Lotus’ (set in Hydra) and ‘Mermaid Singing’ (set in Kalymnos).
One of Clift’s other works with a Greek flavour is being re-issued this year, that being her 1964 novel ‘Honour’s Mimic’.
The re-issue of the book was celebrated at a Sydney event organised by Gleebooks on Sunday 24 August that saw Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos facilitate a discussion with Nadia Wheatley, the partner of Clift’s late son Martin Johnston and writer of the biography ‘The Life and Myth of Charmain Clift’.
Wheatley, who has also edited a book of Clift’s essays and the autobiographical book Clift was writing in 1969 when she died by suicide, also wrote the afterword for the re-issue of ‘Honour’s Mimic’.
Dr Vatsikopoulos stated she was thrilled to be asked to participate in the event, especially given her deep appreciation for Clift’s writing.
“I love Charmian’s work and I was delighted to facilitate a discussion,” she told Neos Kosmos.
Dr Vatsikopoulos had notably spearheaded a focus on Clift’s work at the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival in 2023 (the year that honoured the 100th anniversary of Clift’s birth), for which Wheatley also took part.
The Professional Fellow at UTS praised Wheatley’s Clift biography as the “definitive account of Charmian’s life” and her “favourite biography”.
Speaking on “Honour’s Mimic’, Dr Vatsikopoulos said it follows two Australian women as it explores 1950s life in Kalymnos (a setting not directly named but strongly implied), the dangerous work of sponge divers and the relationships between the men and the women.
“The main characters are two sisters-in-law. One is English, newly married and pregnant to a Kalymnian who owns a successful business dealing with sponges,” Dr Vatsikopoulos said.
“The other is Australian and is visiting them while recovering from an accident. She falls in love with a sponge diver who is already married… and I won’t spoil the story.”
The Professional Fellow at UTS added that the sponge divers would go away for nine months for their work, leaving the women on their own to live their lives and hope they would return home safe and uninjured.
Dr Vatsikopoulos said that Clift, being a great writer and an acuter observer of people, was able to capture the lives of people and their behaviours, customs and general way of life.
“I think her work offers a time capsule on Greek life in the 1950s on the islands,” she said.
Time seems only to be doing wonders for Clift’s legacy, with Dr Vatsikopoulos noting that two memoirs have been published in Greek in the past few years as well as in Spanish and Catalan.
It is that recognition that, in Dr Vatsikopoulos’ opinion, makes it more meaningful that a lot of her writing has a Greek flavour.
“We are very blessed that she has done this work on Greece. While her work was not widely read back then as publishers either didn’t get the significance or they were just happy with the Durrell’s version of Greece – her work has endured and stood the test of time.”
