GREECE
The Dance of the Seas
“We got closer and closer to the island, gazing at the seagulls that flew around us.
No one was talking. There was no need.
Each one of us was in his own world: that particular world of absolute freedom that sailing has offered since times ancient.
Our seas are the gifts of the gods...”
GREECE, the Dance of the Seas is a journey to the islands of Greece: from the most western, lush Corfu, with its old grand estates in the Ionian Sea, to the easternmost tip of Europe, the jewel-like island of Kastellorizo. Artist friends, as well as poets, architects and cosmopolitan collectors, have enthralled the author with their stories when she sails from island to island, like the ancient Cycladic people, and she, in turn, invites her readers to reach a more sensuous approach to the Greek heritage, along with the beauty of spectacular views and sites.
From the “Emerald Colours” of Corfu to Hydra, “the Island of Painters”. From Tinos, “the Island of Winds”, through Delos, “the Island of Apollo”. Traversing cosmopolitan Mykonos to Paros “the Island of Marble” and volcanic Santorini we reach the Cretan Shores to sail onward to the Dodecanese, reaching Astypalea “the Butterfly of the Aegean”, Patmos “the Island of the Apocalypse” and entering into the tale of the Knights of Rhodes before arriving at Kastellorizo, just two miles from the Asia Minor Coast.
A journey through space, time, myth, History, the magic of the Greek seas and the picturesque Greek islands with the discerning eye of an experienced traveller.
“A must-read book for all true lovers of Greece”
BOOK REVIEWS
The intriguing look we capture in Barbara's other travel books is clearly seen in the pages of her new book, GREECE The Dance of the Seas. It is a pleasant and easy-to-read journey, I would say a diachronic literary cruise in our seas, from Corfu, the lush island with the grand old estates in the Ionian Sea, to the tiny island-jewel of Kastellorizo, just two miles off the coast of Asia Minor.
The book is enriched with historical elements while the descriptions are written with a characteristic romantic mood, brilliance, humour, and a lot of love for the place that gave birth to the author. By reading her book, you also feel that you are travelling with Barbara in the blue waters of the Ionian and the Aegean. Close your eyes, indulge in the game of fantasy and enjoy your journey seduced by the magic of the Greek seas.
Eugene Pierris, Author
Barbara has her own particular style of writing, but also her historical narrative is well-researched and documented. She travels through the centuries, while in her wanderings and explorations she includes us, her friends, as companions and co-players. In her book she dances, not only in reality, enchanted by the magic of our seas - hence the title GREECE, The Dance of the Seas, but she dances mentally as well, conceiving a slightly fictional tale with a poetic mood and theatricality.
In this choreography of the islands, spread over the Ionian and Aegean Seas, Barbara lures us, the readers, to travel and dance deep in space and time following the rhythms of her pen as she makes her own experiences become ours. I could say that the adventure of her sea-journey reaches the limits of self-awareness. An inward journey that she is challenging us to make because her writing gives its own lighting to the places she visits, or better, she gives her own literary lens to the particular aspects of the islands she explores, while she lets us do our own reading and gain our own personal experience.
A book that any foreign visitor to the Greek islands must read.
Evita Baltas, Poet
Barbara!! How nice that we travelled together from Corfu, which I visited in 1965 on a school excursion and have since been to many times as I love it, to the unknown to me Kastellorizo on the easternmost part of the Aegean Sea of which our good friend Constantina and her father years ago talked abundantly and were calling me to visit. Kastellorizo is also associated with the unrealised desire of my friend Gianni Versace to acquire a house on the island... As you see, your book has brought memories well-kept in my soul.
What a talent to convey such pictures, feelings, colours and perfumes! Each time, your readers are waiting to travel with you, to be charmed by your stories, to reveal to them hidden events of History!
When is your next book out?
Dimitris Tsitouras, Art Collector