For Charmian Clift, Greece was the Promised Land. In the 1950s, Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston left gray post-war London to come to Greece, with their two children and their typewriters. They first settled on the small island of Kalymnos, then on Hydra, planning to live simply and devote themselves to writing, away from the noise of the big city. The result was two of Charmian Clift's most well-known and beloved books, the memoirs Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus. Mermaid Singing conveys the cultural shock and absolute pleasure of the couple's first year on the sponge divers' island. Kalymnos at that time was bare and poor – an escape, but by no means a paradise. However, as the months passed, Clift and her family became part of the community.