Gradually the magic of the island [Corfu] settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen. - Gerald Durrell

I liked being half-educated; you were so much more surprised at everything when you were ignorant.

there came from the olive groves outside the fuchsia hedge the incessant shimmering cries of the cicadas. If the curious, blurring heat haze produced a sound, it would be exactly the strange, chiming cries of these insects.

Overflowing with the milk of human kindness, the family had invited everyone they could think of, including people they cordially disliked.