Olivia Manning
1908 – 1980
Olivia Mary Manning was a novelist, poet, and writer. She was born in North End, Portsmouth on March 2, 1908. Both her fiction and nonfiction are widely known all across the globe and are admired for being artistically told, vividly descriptive, and beautifully honest. She mostly writes about long journeys or expeditions, and the challenges and joys of love and loss. Her two main trilogies are the Balkan and Levant Trilogies, but she has written many other books. The Balkan Trilogy follows a young couple, Guy and Harriet Pringle, who are forced to leave their home and flee to Greece as the German army invades during the WWII era. The Levant Trilogy follows the same couple as their journey continues to Egypt and they discover the hardships of war, marriage, life; and the price we ultimately pay for success.