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In the Dolphin’s Wake by Harry Bucknall 2011 ISBN: 978-1-1903071-34-2
There are many books written by travellers to the Greek Islands and as this one was subtitled “Cocktails Calamities and Caiques in the Greek Islands”, I assumed that this would be another patronisingly written tome in the just relate lots of situations in which the Greeks and their customs appear eccentric, stupid, lazy and they lack the Western European skills in organisation and timekeeping, style. However what made Bucknall’s account more interesting for me, was the economical way in which he could coherently summarise the key bits of history and mythology associated with the many islands that he visited on his sojourns across the Aegean. Bucknall spent about a day on each of 36 islands he visited across all the Greek island regions yet was able to give a reasonable flavour of their unique identities.
What came across to me most poignantly was the extent of widespread slaughter that occurred, of local island populations, even as recently as the last century; where foreign invaders, pirates and even neighbouring islanders razed and burned land and buildings and wiped out entire populations with cyclical regularity. Island life was very insecure and perilous, little wonder that the remains of so many towers castros and mountain lairs can be found around most islands. And if invaders didn’t get you, there was always the odd natural disaster to make life even more precarious. A euro crisis would have seemed child’s play to yesterday’s Greek Islander.
Highly recommended for the casual reader as a light but sombre read.
Ernie (Apostoli)