Powell was an accomplished classicist and speaker, and would have relished a tough fight with interviewers, but this a fairly rosy view of his personality. Alongside his polished and proud persona, h… (View Post)

A strange character, Powell, but not atypical of his time and education. He was capable of great subtlety and classical erudition, but also crude brutishness and boorishness. That combination would h… (View Post)

Yes, having spent a fair time in Greece, I've heard quite a lot of this. As you say, I I think the chapter is historically closed - the Christian Greeks returned from cities like Smyrna, and man… (View Post)

Without wanting to sound like an advert, there are great prices available all over Europe at the moment. The fairly upscale house we stayed in in the Dodecanese islands the other year seems to have h… (View Post)

Sicily indeed has multiple layers of culture and history, visible in the people, and great food. There are also some quite acute pockets of deprivation in some areas, that are worse than parts of Gre… (View Post)