Jim Potts, The Ionian Islands and Epirus, A Cultural History

The Ionian Islands and Epirus, A Cultural History is now available in a hardback edition from Oxford University Press, USA.

NB Don't miss the presentations at PLOUS Bookshop, Corfu, on 29 September (see poster above)!

Extracts from some reviews to date:

ATHENS NEWS 

2/4/2010

Getting the feel for a place: The Ionian Islands and Epirus: A Cultural History

Damian Mac Con Eladh

IF EVIDENCE is required that Greece can enchant, enthral and engage, then Briton Jim Potts’ book is just that.

The Ionian Islands and Epirus takes a refreshing look at the islands and mountains of western Greece. 

What he produces over the course of 280 pages is a wonderful and inspiring miscellany of all things Ionian and Epirot. Potts exposes the reader - who ideally is planning or undertaking a holiday or has taken up residence in the regions - to their rich corpus of poetry, prose and travel writing, be they of Greek or foreign hand.

This is a guide book in many ways, but one with a difference. Unlike the conventional kind, it doesn’t signpost readers to the best eateries or cliched tourist attractions. Rather, it makes accessible a rich cultural repository to the discerning and cultured tourist - and resident - who otherwise don’t have the resources, linguistic or temporal, to explore the written word of and on the regions.

The author doesn’t just bring the reader on a near-physical journey through the region’s geography, but on a literary tour of its written past. 

But this is not just a compendium of what has been written on the Ionian Islands and Epirus, in this latest publication in UK publisher Signal Books’ series “Landscapes of the Imagination”. Rather, the author has made judicious use of these writings, weaving it into a narrative that he skilfully directs. 

Indeed, one of its most attractive aspects is its discursive style. Potts takes the reader through many of the questions - religious, cultural and historical among others - that he has found himself confronted with through his on-and-off presence in Corfu and the wider region - a journey that began in 1967, the first year of the military dictatorship in Greece. 

Potts is keenly aware that one’s imagination greatly influences how one perceives a place, and in one chapter examines how different people in different eras were attracted to the Ionian Islands, all for their own reasons. 

“Do we all see the same views and perceive the same landscapes when we stand on the same spot under similar conditions?” he asks, before explaining that this is rarely the case. 

Nor is it a beautified, touristic account. Potts deals with his subject warts and all. He levels criticism where it is due, such as the crass commercialisation of tourism in Corfu, expressed in the erection of concrete hotels in some of the most picturesque parts of the island, which in many parts is treated as a rubbish tip by inhabitants. 

This little gem of a book will provide the discerning traveller with something grossly lacking from other tourist guides: a real cultural history with which he or she can contextualise the wonderful experience that is the Ionian Islands and Epirus. 

ISLAND Magazine, Summer 2010,

Issue 12

Chris Holmes

Jim Potts’ homage to the Eptanisos and Epirus is an absolute charmer and the spells with which he binds us extend beyond the myths and legends he brings to life with his understated prose. This is writing of a very high calibre …Let Jim’s writing sweep you along in its own wondrous colour and light, befitting the regions he describes.

Everything is covered…a remarkable book- a sort of Kindle unplugged- everything in a single volume, made charming by an author who carries his immense learning lightly and whose gentle donnish voice is everywhere. A joy and a treasure and a valuable long-lasting addition to the literature of our region.

THE CORFIOT

April 2010

“This is possibly the most important book about our region to be published in recent years”.

ATHENS INSIDER (see full review here)

July/August 2010

Mike Sweet

A new book by Corfu resident Jim Potts reveals the cultural legacy of the Ionian Islands region and its people, but also asks deeper questions about the nature of Hellenic identity and the Greek experience itself…

It is this region, and that contribution, that inspired former British Council Director, Jim Potts, to write what is the latest title in the ground-breaking LANDSCAPES OF THE IMAGINATION SERIES, produced by UK publisher Signal Books. The series, which has created something of a new genre, sets out to explore through their history, literature and art, the world’s great landscapes – real, mythic and imagined…

The author takes the reader on a remarkable journey, ‘accompanied’ by a host of artists and writers, inspired through the ages, by the islands and the nearby Pindus Mountains - from Homer to Byron, Edward Lear to the Durrells, Louis de Bernieres to Nicholas Gage. The perceptions of these fellow travelers through time, is at the heart of the Potts’ writing, and Pott’s story interweaves their portrayals of the region through the centuries, with the author’s own sensitive and revealing reflections.

As Potts himself suggests, the book, researched and written over three years “does not pretend to reveal the ‘hidden history’ of the two regions, but rather…throw the spotlight on aspects of history that have been whitewashed or re-imagined, and on overly-nationalistic or revisionist accounts.”

Fastiduously researched, the book reveals Potts’ immense knowledge and love of the subject. This kaleidoscope of ideas and imagery, of real and imagined stories, conceived over centuries, gives a profound insight into the history the islands and Epirot mainland, and the cultural legacy that remains. It is a work which goes far beyond the fare of any conventional tourist guide. This important book is a ‘must read’ for any discerning explorer of this beautiful, distinctive part of Greece.

THE ANGLO-HELLENIC REVIEW

No 42, Autumn 2010.

Paul Watkins

"…The impact of the 50-year protectorate on the Ionians and the parallel Epirot coastline is one of the many aspects of their history explored by Jim Potts in his wide-ranging dossier…

Jim Potts has produced a worthy addition to Signal Books’ excellent ‘Landscapes of the Imagination’ series."


PS
Just received the published Insider Athens review: