HIT: Books on Greece

[Joy Rosario <maristdb@IAFRICA.COM>]

Dear Colleagues,

At last a reply, time ran out before I left for Rhodes and thus a mail only
now. Thankyou
to those who replied - a selection:

Eleni by Nicholas Cage was recommended time and again and I have also
identified a video made of same. A harrowing book detailing the
circumstances of the Greek Civil War
in which the author's mother was executed.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Loius de Bernieres. I haven't read it yet but
the blurb states an emotional, funny, stunning novel which swings with wide
smoothness between joy and bleakness, personal lives and history, its
lyrical and angry, satirical and earnest. Am really looking forward to
it...

Travels as a Brussels Scout by Nick Middleton. Right up my street as I
really enjoy humorous travel writers in the vein of Bill Bryson. He only
touches on Greece in his tour of Europe but nevertheless manages to quickly
perceive cultural quirks as he does  of every country he visits. Witty
without being unkind and very funny.

Just on my observations of Rhodes (Rodos) - a real tourist trap but full of
wonderful history - all flying archways and khokhlaki (pebbled streets).
The Old Town was inhabited by the Knights of St John, the seven "tongues"
representing seven countries who guarded the town. One can still walk down
the Street of Knights where each tongue had an inn and go through the Grand
Master's Palace (the chief knight) where there is a magnificent display of
Roman mosaics as well as the accoutrement of the knights. I regaled my
pupils with all of this on my return, the younger boys who 'do' the Middle
Ages were particularly entranced. This paticular place lends itself
beautifully to research particularly as it is also the home of Colossus
that was! The Old Town incidentally is the largest medieval town still
inhabited - how the residents must be tired of strangers peering into their
homes. One other thing, there is a small synagogue with a plaque and
fountain dedicated to 1750 Jews who were removed by the Nazis and sent to
Auschwitz, just over a hundred returned.

Anyway, all well worth the visit (although I was there for a medical
conference) and thankyou once again for your help.

Joy Rosario
Librarian
Marist Brothers' College
Durban, South Africa
maristdb@iafrica.com

"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire".
William Butler Yeats

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