This is a personal journey through history and politics on the back of the narrator’s own experiences in the two countries he has come to love most: Greece and England. The impact of momentous events over the years on everyday lives and the ensuing struggle for survival are vividly, poetically and also humorously portrayed. So are his generation’s dreams and doubts, illusions and disillusionments, hopes and despair. The story does not fail to highlight the need for a new, radical vision to help us resist the dispiriting cynicism of our times and face the future with confidence. This, among other things, takes the narrator to Skyros, ‘the first and still the best’ alternative holiday, where hundreds of Europeans confirm every year their commitment to fundamental human priorities and values. A telling, informed and revealing account of a man’s life whose sense of history, myth and politics are a powerful and sometimes toxic mix. The book, with literary references that enrich personal insights, will appeal to anyone whose life paradoxically both swims with and struggles against larger shaping forces. It will also be of interest to students of popular culture.
