Reading About Greece
What it's like to live in Greece
Christmas is coming and it’s time to start dropping hints about what you want to see in your Christmas stocking, or making a note of what you want to buy for yourself. As it will likely be a while till any of us get out to visit Greece, why not curl up with a book that tells you what it’s like to be there?
Fortunately we’ve reviewed lots of these books on our website, mainly because we enjoy reading them ourselves. So here are a few of our personal favourites. Click through to the website if any appeal to you and you want to know more about them.
Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens by Sofka Zinovieff
The author moves to Athens with her Greek husband and two daughters, and this is her account of her first year discovering the Greek capital. She also discovers the Greek way of life, whether it’s the tricks you need to learn if you want to hail a taxi, or the relaxed Greek attitude to punctuality. See our own full review of Eurydice Street.
The Summer of My Greek Taverna by Tom Stone
American Tom Stone lived on Patmos for a time, then moved to Crete, but while there he was offered the chance to return to Patmos and help run a taverna for the summer season. He accepted, and the result is a wonderful and funny book, but also very touching. He also throws in a few recipes. Chicken Retsina, anyone? See our own full review of The Summer of My Greek Taverna.
A Rope of Vines by Brenda Chamberlain
Chamberlain lived on Hydra in the early 1960s, and describes her life there and the lives of the ordinary Greek people vividly. The author is also an artist and her illustrations bring the characters and landscapes to life even more. Read our full review of A Rope of Vines.
Margarita’s Olive Press by Rodney Shields is a modern gem of a book of Greek travel writing, in which the author falls in love with and renovates a property on Zakynthos. Read the review here.
Mermaid Singing:
Mermaid Singing by Charmian Clift is a fine example of 1950s travel writing about the Greek island of Kalymnos in the Dodecanese. Read the review here.
Peel Me a Lotus
Peel Me a Lotus by Charmian Clift is a Hydra travel writing classic, describing her family’s life on this tiny Greek island near Athens in the 1950s. The review is here.
Jennifer Barclay's enjoyable account of her summer working at a taverna by the sea on the island of Karpathos. You’ll find the full review here.
A Thing of Beauty by Peter Fiennes describes ‘Travels in Mythical and Modern Greece’ and places the Greek Gods in the context of modern-day Greece. Read the review here.
More Greece Books
And you can find some more suggestions on this page of Books About Greece, where we list some titles that we haven’t given full reviews to.
Till next time
Mike and Donna