In 1957, Durrell published Justine, the first part of what was to become his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet. Justine, Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1959) and Clea (1960) deal with events before and during the Second World War in Alexandria, Egypt. The first three books tell essentially the same story but from different perspectives, a technique Durrell described in his introductory note to Balthazar as "relativistic". Only in the final part, Clea, does the story advance in time and reach a conclusion.

Born in Jullundur, British India, the son of Indian-born British colonials Lawrence George Durrell (1912 – 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer.

Although he had several spells working for the British Government - he was senior Press Officer to the British Embassies in Athens and Cairo, Press Attache in Alexandria and Belgrade, Director of the British Institutes in Kalamata, Greece, and Córdoba, Argentina. He was also Director of Public Relations in the Dodecanese Islands and on Cyprus. - he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan.

It has been posthumously suggested that Durrell never had British citizenship, though more accurately, he became defined as a non-patrial in 1968 due to the amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. Hence, he was denied the right to enter or settle in Britain under new laws and had to apply for a visa for each entry.

Durrell suffered from emphysema for many years. He died of a stroke at his house in Sommières a small village in Languedoc, France, in 1990.

Source - Wikipedia