No Ordinary Greek Odyssey

WHERE THE BLUE TRULY BEGINS This fascinating illustrated memoir captures the beauty and history of Greece in the thirty years between 1960-1989. With over 75 black and white photographs by Simon Stembridge, it is written through the eyes of two young people who began travelling to Greece in the early 1960s and then with children made mainland Greece and many of its islands their main holiday destination. Book One WHERE THE BLUE TRULY BEGINS goes up into the blue sky at the dawn of a charter flight holiday industry, across the not always blue sea on very basic Greek ferries, travelling the blue-green mountains and smelling the thyme permeating their Greek meanderings. Out of The Blue could easily have been an alternative title, given that the Covid 19 Pandemic occurred while the author worked on this account. Suzi writes movingly, interspersing her feelings and emotions through the pages with the realisation that their planned 2020 summer visit to Greece is unlikely to go ahead. Those, especially like Suzi and her family, who found their 2020 plans dashed will delight in the spiritual reflections of the authors who deliberately made their exploration of Greece, one of venturing to the remote and unusual places. Their wonder in each new place, mainland region or island is captured in these pages. Their quest through a lifetime in travel to Greece made it a challenge to find different and stunning locations each year. When these places become harder to unearth would the family eventually put down roots in Greece? By the nineteen-eighties these adventures and journeys had indeed become 'employment' when first Suzi was invited to work for a small independent tour operator, then another, which progressively led first to Suzi founding her own travel agency GRECO-FILE Ltd and inevitably her own tour operation FILOXENIA Ltd. This work brought the family into contact with many interesting people including many eminent members of the travel press as well as writers, artists and Greek aristocrats. As the business grows Simon, retiring as a production editor on the Yorkshire Post, and Oliver, leaving college will join her ... more on that story later!