CRETAN REVIEW
Related reading material / video

Check out one of the large bookstore chains or the websites of Barnes & Noble / Amazon.com for the following great books.

Winds of Crete---David Macneil Doren
Life in 1960's Crete as seen by an American couple living amongst the local Cretan inhabitants. Good perspective on everyday life forty years ago, before cell-phones, multiple motor vehicles and mass tourism.

ILL Met by Moonlight---W. Stanley Moss
Set in World War II Crete, the true story of the abduction of a German Nazi High Command General by a covert British commando unit. A must read for anyone interested in modern Cretan history. The 1957 film "Night Ambush" was based on this story.

Zorba the Greek---Nikos Kazantzakis
Kazantzakis' classic masterpiece novel based on the true-life title character of the same name. It tells the story of an Englishman, who travels to pre-war Crete to set up a mining venture on some inherited land. On the boat from Athens to Crete he meets Alexis Zorba, an older, streetwise, battle hardened character, who lives life on life's terms. Their ensuing friendship is always an interesting contrast of two minds and cultures. There are also many memorable secondary characters such as the Widow. The Oscar winning 1963 Michael Cacoyiannis film shot in the Chania / Akrotiri region with Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates and Irene Pappas is a must see on video. Read the book first. I won't mention any memorable quotes, as there are so many...(SE)

The Cretan Runner---George Psychoundakis
Written by a Cretan who was active in the resistance, this gripping and moving book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what life was like in the struggle against the Nazi occupation of Crete. Historically, its value may be that it is one of the rare first-hand accounts written by an active member of the local resistance who daily risked his life as he worked with the Allies. The brutality of the Germans is well-documented and contrasts sharply with the lack of desire for revenge by the Cretans. The selflessness, bravery and 'levendia' of the author and his comrades (and let's not forget the many young men from Britain and the Commonwealth who fought and died thousands of miles from home) is humbling and, particularly for those who were too young or lucky not to know the horrors of that dark time in Crete's blood-soaked history, serve as a much-needed reminder of the debt owed to the many who sacrificed so much.

Psychoundakis is a natural storyteller who writes in a direct and brilliantly articulate style despite being uneducated. His prose speaks to and from the heart and the book grips like the best thriller; if only the terrible events he recounts were fiction, but they are an indelible part of the island's long and centuries- old struggle for freedom and the heavy price paid for it. Ultimately, it is a story of the triumph of the human , and particularly Cretan, spirit.

The poignant and unhappy footnote is that the author was poorly rewarded for his heroics and is still alive in reduced circumstances in the village of his birth. This is nothing less than a scandal but unfortunately, perhaps, only symptomatic of the fact that in Greece we fail to honour and recognise our heroes until it is too late.

For a scholarly and thorough account of the German occupation of Greece, read the excellent "Inside Hitler's Greece - The Experience of Occupation" by Mark Mazower. This points out that often the Greeks were their own worst enemies and shows how ill-served the country was by a never-ending wave of ineffectual politicians.
---Nicholas Economakis...(London, England.)

If you have read any good books relating to Crete (whether history, non-fiction, fiction, foreign writers etc.) please email us with a short essay, including, the name and author of the book and what the book is about.

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You might have special memories of Crete through visiting on holiday, or perhaps spending your formative years at school there, moving back there when you were younger, meeting your future partner there or going back after many years and seeing how it has changed.

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