Wat ga je allemaal doen tijdens je vakantie op Corfu? Zwemmen, wandelen, Corfu ontdekken, uitgaan, restaurantjes bezoeken en zo voort. Maar vergeet niet zo nu en dan even lekker aan het strand of zwembad te gaan liggen met een goed boek. Er is niets verkeerds aan om lekker te lezen tijdens het zonnebaden, toch? Hieronder een lijstje van boeken die Corfu als onderwerp hebben, hetzij in romanvorm of om de rijke historie van dit Griekse eiland te beschrijven. Genoemde boeken en de korte beschrijvingen zijn wel Engels-talig. Prettige vakantie!

Sleeping Dogs – Thomas Mogford

An old friend persuades Gibraltarian lawyer Spike Sanguinetti to take a well-earned rest on Corfu’s beautiful north-east coast. But when the bloodied body of a young Albanian is found and a local man accused of his murder, Spike reluctantly agrees to take the case. Beneath the island’s veneer of wealth and privilege Spike uncovers truths so damaging that those involved will go to any lengths to protect them. And when a vulnerable young woman disappears, Spike knows that there are some sleeping dogs he cannot let lie.

Some reviews:

  • A feast of recognition! Traveling to the well known and unknown parts of Corfu with Spike Sanguinetti and his beautiful ex-girlfriend Jessica – Yours truly, Dick Mulder
  • One of the most enjoyable crime series of recent years – Sunday Express
  • Popular fiction at its best – Susan Hill
  • Evocative, engrossing and entertaining – The Times
  • Mogford’s sharp prose drew me in from the first page and his intriguingly flawed hero Spike stands out in the memory – Sadie Jones
  • Very original, and brilliantly rendered … a rare and enviable talent – William Boyd

Link: Click here

The Lady of the Pier Trilogy – Effrosyni Moschoudi

The trilogy is partly set in Moraitika and Messonghi.
CORFU, GREECE, 1987 – On a long holiday with her grandparents, Sofia Aspioti meets Danny Markson, a charming flirt who makes her laugh. Although she tries to keep him at arm’s length, worried that village gossip will get back to her strict family, she falls desperately in love. That’s when strange dreams about Brighton’s West Pier and a woman dressed in black begin to haunt her. Who is this grieving woman? And how is her lament related to Sofia’s feelings for Danny?
Website The Ebb: Click here

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, 1937 – Dreaming of wealth and happiness, Laura Mayfield arrives in Brighton to pursue a new life. She falls for Christian Searle, a happy-go-lucky stagehand at the West Pier theatre, but when she’s offered a chance to perform there, her love for him is put to the test. Charles Willard, a wealthy aristocrat, is fascinated by her and pursues her relentlessly. Will Laura choose love … or money?
Website The Flow: Click here

What others say about Effrosyni’s books:

  • Effrosyni layers her words on the page like music – Jackie Weger, author of The House on Persimmon Road
  • Very few writers have such a gift for realism – Kelly Smith Reviews
  • Beautifully written . . . The book contains beautiful descriptive writing and I couldn’t put it down – L. Mullarkey, Amazon reviewer

Link: Click here

The Corfu Trilogy – Gerald Durrell

The Corfu Trilogy consists of the popular classic My Family and Other Animals and its delightful sequels, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods. All three books are set on the enchanted island of Corfu in the 1930s, and tell the story of the eccentric English family who moved there. For Gerald, the budding zoologist, Corfu was a natural paradise, teeming with strange birds and beasts that he could collect, watch and care for. But life was not without its problems – his family often objected to his animal-collecting activities, especially when the beasts wound up in the villa or – even worse – the fridge. With hilarious yet endearing portraits of his family and their many unusual hangers-on, The Corfu Trilogy also captures the beginnings of the author’s lifelong love of animals. Recounted with immense humour and charm, this wonderful account of Corfu’s natural history reveals a rare, magical childhood.
Link: Click here

Corfu Banquet (with Recipes) – Emma Tennant

Corfu Banquet celebrates the tastes, smells and colours of an island where the cooking is seasonal and the flowers play changes on the theme of a year-round spring. An island where life follows the sea; from an icy turquoise in March, through autumn’s olive darkness when mourga, (the mush of discarded olive skins from the village press) clouds the water to a claret wine, as winter sets in. A memoir in the rhythm of the five seasons of Corfu, the story tells of the house of Rovinia, built in the sixties by Emma Tennant’s parents and of Maria, the ‘spirit of the house’, her knowledge and wisdom. Corfu Banquet entwines recipes and original photographs with fond recollections in prose. This is a sensuous experience, like pinching the basil that grows in great pots at the back door or tasting the pale pink of the homemade fragole ice cream.
Link: Click here

The Reluctant Empress – Brigitte Hamann

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known to her family as Sisi, belongs to a famous love story of European royalty. In 1853 the Emperor Franz Josef, the most eligible bachelor in Europe, fell in love with her at first sight when she was 15. They were married the next year. On the surface, it was a fairy-tale marriage, all the more poignant, with hindsight, because her tragic death augured the twilight years of the Habsburg Empire.
First published in 1988, Brigitte Hamann’s definitive biography tells Elisabeth’s story from her birth into Bavarian nobility to her assassination at the hands of an Italian anarchist. In her lifetime she was idolised solely for her grace and beauty; but Hamann shows us a stronger character, bitter at her marriage, seeking independence, and struggling against the powerful influence of her mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie.
Link: Click here

A Kitchen in Corfu – James Chatto

This is a new series of beautifully-produced re-issues of some of the great classics of food and recipe-writing from the 20th century. In these days of celebrity TV cooks and their garish, over-hyped blockbusting tie-ins, there never was a better time for an antidote: the quiet rediscovery of great, unsung classics such as these. Each title will be handsomely presented as a gift book for the keen amateur cook and lover of food literature. Each title has been selected for the highest quality of the writing, not just the recipes, although all the recipes are superb. This series will become the ultimate library for lovers of great food and food literature. “A Kitchen in Corfu” is an entrancing memoir of a foreign couple’s sojourn in the remote village of Loutses, on the higher slope of Mount Pantokrator in north-east Corfu. They describe their charming encounters with the villagers, who were never shy to share their time-honoured recipes. This is a cuisine that chimes with the times, using locally-pressed olive oil from the village’s own orchards, foraged wild ingredients such as herbs, shoots and greens, mushrooms, and other locally-picked delicacies.
Link: Click here

The Venetian House – Mary Nickson

For Victoria, orphaned at six, her grandmother Evanthi’s beautiful home in Corfu – known locally as The Venetian House – has always meant safety, freedom and a near-magical kind of contentment. Brought up by her cousin Guy’s parents in England, she – together with Guy and his childhood friend Richard Cunningham – always longed for the idylllic summer holidays where they forged a friendship that would last a lifetime. Victoria was mesmerized by brilliant, selfish, enigmatic Guy, but it was safe, affectionate, reliable Richard whom she married. Now, twenty years later, Richard is dead. Victoria discovers her marriage was a sham and, desperate to escape, she takes Jake out to The Venetian House, feeling that only these beloved surroundings can she face her demons. Then photographer Patrick Hammond arrives. He brings with him his own troubles – his marriage to elegant, self- centred, neurotic Rachel is in crisis – yet a friendship, and possibly something more, starts to develop between Patrick and Victoria. But for Evanthi there is something strangely familiar about Patrick and soon she is forced to face her own troubled past.
Link: Click here

Landscapes of Corfu – Noel Rochford

Designed to take visitors away from the tourist centres and out into the countryside, exploring by private or public transport, this guide to Corfu offers information on car tours, picnics, 30 main walks for all ages and abilities and contains up-to-date timetables for public transport. In addition are topographical walking maps, a pull-out touring map as well as a plan of Corfu town.
Link: Click here

Beroemde Griekse Auteurs

  • Archimedes – ca. 287 – 212 BC
  • Euclid – 300 BC
  • Aristotelis – 384 – 322 BC
  • Plato – ca. 424 – 348 BC
  • Aristophanes – ca. 446 – ca. 386 BC
  • Hippocrates – ca. 460 – 370 BC
  • Euripides – ca. 480 – 406 BC
  • Herodotus – ca. 484 – 425 BC
  • Sophocles – ca. 496 – 406 BC
  • Homerus – ca. 8th century BC