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It is worth keeping in mind that a classic of the post-war Australian novel, My Brother Jack, owes its existence to the incredible patience and generosity of a grocery store/kafenion owner on the island of Hydra.

This is one of the gems of information that is hauled and re-polished for the reader by Tanya Dalziell and Paul Genoni in their book Half the Perfect World, Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964.

The book, which won last year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Award in the non-fiction section, covers the time Australian literary couple George Johnston and Charmian Clift spent on Hydra. Towards the end of their time there, Johnston’s My Brother Jack finally earned him recognition for his long labours in Hydra.

There is a section in Half the Perfect World, quoted below, which reflects something of a world that now seems long gone. A friend, Rodney Hall, recounts when George Johnston goes to pay his debt at the local kafenion owned by the Katsikas family. The debt is a big one stretching over the years – Johnston and Clift, and their three children, have lived on Hydra on little income in the hope the novel-writing craft for which they have forsaken journalism and Australia will finally yield success and fortune.

After nine years on Hydra, their efforts finally bare fruit – My Brother Jack, is accepted and 100,000 copies are to be printed. They receive a cheque from the publishers and one of their first acts is to repay the debt to the ever-patient Katsikas.