A gloriously sunny book of family secrets, lost loves and self-discovery, One Summer in Crete by Nadia Marks is an engrossing holiday read. ‘If you don’t think you’re about to get to Crete this is the next best thing . . . we’ve never needed books of this kind more’ – Vanessa Feltz Calli’s world has fallen apart – her relationship is suddenly over and her chances of starting a family are gone. So when she’s sent to write a magazine article about the Greek island of Ikaria, it seems like the perfect escape. Travelling to Crete, where her family is from, Calli soon realizes there is more to discover than paradise beaches and friendly locals. And, when her aunt Froso begins to share the story of her own teenage heartache, the love, betrayal and revenge she reveals might just change Calli’s life forever . . . Travel further with Secrets Under the Sun and Between the Orange Groves by Nadia Marks.
For Somerville this was a kind of pilgrimage, a journey unlike any he had undertaken in 20 years of travel-writing. It was an expedition where he traded the usual comforts and certainties for a real physical and mental challenge, with no mobile phone or other technological aids. The only plan for his journey was to begin in the East at Easter and finish at Whitsun in the extreme West, at the Monastery of the Golden Step, whose gold step, legend says, can only be seen by those who have purged themselves into purity. During his 300-mile walk, he tackled four mountain ranges, high slopes and the numerous gorges of the West. Speaking only basic Greek and trying to follow a poorly way-marked path, he had to rely on his own instincts when climbing mountain passes and crossing high plateaux, farming and shepherding country, where villages are scarce and each night's accommodation was uncertain. He saw a Crete few ever encounter.
Freely provides detailed maps and itineraries for extended excursions. Sized to fit with ease into a backpack or a glove box, this useful compendium is suitable for all travelers to that part of the world--Booklist
Renowned British novelist Unsworth documents his fascinating travels in Crete, largest of the Greek isles and home to the Minoan civilization of 1500 B.C.--one of the most glittering and sophisticated cultures the world has ever seen.
Secrets Under the Sun is a stunning romantic mystery by the sea, from Nadia Marks, author of the bestselling Among the Lemon Trees. The truth will surprise you . . . On the island of Cyprus, in the small seaside town of Larnaka, three childhood friends have reunited for the funeral of Katerina, the much-loved old woman who had a profound effect on their lives. Eleni, Marianna and Adonis grew up together, as close as siblings. Although from humble beginnings – a housemaid from the age of thirteen – Katerina’s love, wisdom and guidance helped shape them all. Her loss leaves the friends bereft, but the funeral is not just a time to mourn and remember. Adonis’s mother decides that with Katerina’s death comes the time to share the family’s secrets and answer the riddles of their childhood. A story of deception, forbidden love and undying loyalty unravels. What she reveals will change everything . . .
The secret of Crete is Wunderlich's attempt to resolve the paradoxes that have obsessed the archaeological world ever since Evan's spectacular find at the beginning of this century.
She had thought that they would be together forever, but Max's betrayal leaves Anna questioning their marriage and fearing the future. So when her elderly widowed father invites her to spend the summer with him on the small Aegean island of his birth, Anna agrees - unaware that a chance discovery is about to unleash a host of family secrets. Kept hidden for sixty years, they reveal a torrent of events, beginning in Greece at the beginning of the 20th century and ending in Naples at the close of the Second World War. Confronted by their family's long buried truths, both father and daughter have their worlds turned upside down and Anna begins to realise that, if she is ever to heal the present, she must first understand the past . . .
*THE FIGURINE, the brand-new novel from Victoria Hislop, is available to order now.* 'A moving and absorbing holiday read that pulls at the heartstrings' Evening Standard The acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller and winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2006. Victoria Hislop tells a dramatic tale of four generations, illicit love, violence and leprosy, from the thirties, through the war, to the present day. On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip... Praise for The Island. . . 'A vivid, moving and absorbing tale' Observer 'Victoria Hislop . . . brings dignity and tenderness to her novel about lives blighted by leprosy' Telegraph 'Wonderful descriptions, strong characters and an intimate portrait of island existence' Woman & Home 'War, tragedy and passion unfurl against a Mediterranean backdrop in this engrossing debut novel' You magazine 'Hislop's deep research, imagination and patent love of Crete creates a convincing portrait of times on the island' Evening Standard 'A page-turning tale that reminds us that love and life continue in even the most extraordinary of circumstances' Sunday Express 'A beautiful tale of enduring love and unthinking prejudice' Express In 2018, The Island was awarded a Nielsen Platinum Bestseller Award in recognition of selling over one million copies in the United Kingdom.
This is the story of how a small SOE unit led by Patrick Leigh Fermor kidnapped a German general on the Nazi-occupied island of Crete in 1944. For thirty-two days, they were chased across the mountains as they headed for the coast and a rendezvous with a Royal Navy launch waiting to spirit the general to Cairo. Rick Stroud, whose Phantom Army of Alamein won plaudits for its meticulous research and its lightness of touch in the telling, brings these same gifts to bear in this new project. From the adrenalin rush of the kidnapping, to the help provided by the Cretan partisans and people, he explains the overall context of Crete's role in World War II and reveals the devastating consequences of this mission for them all. There have been other accounts, but Kidnap in Crete is the first book to draw on all the sources, notably those in Crete as well as SOE files and the accounts, letters, and private papers of its operatives in London and Edinburgh.
