Projects in Progress

Maria is putting the finishing touches to a new book, a really wonderful collection of short stories (in Greek), all of them set on different islands and based on her island experiences. It is planned that an English edition will follow in due course.

About six months ago I was approached by a London publisher (who greatly liked my “The Ionian Islands and Epirus, A Cultural History”) to write a new book, a more comprehensive cultural history of Greece, i.e. Ancient, Byzantine and Modern Greece. At first I was excited and tempted by the challenge and the idea, and we came up with a novel approach, a detailed list of contents and topics to be covered- Maria was willing to collaborate on it too. But then we thought: do we really want to spend the next two years of our lives researching and writing such a time-consuming work?

We reluctantly decided not to pursue it further. I’m still interested in exploring some of the ideas and topics in a shorter, illustrated volume, but it’s not an immediate priority.

I already had two or three other works in progress, two about Dorset, one about Czechoslovakia. Maria had her collection of short stories to finish, in Greek and English.

It’s 45 years since I first came to Corfu and met Maria. There’s no shortage of material to write about. 45 inspiring years! Neither of us could have achieved any of this without the support of the other.

Book Launch at Waterstones