Bibliography : Greece Travel Writing in English

This bibliography is intended as a resource for collectors of 'travel literature', which I take to mean books which have been written to relate personal experience of travel or residence. In other words, they are at least in part biographical, which sets them apart from the much larger 'guide book' genre. The list is not exhaustive, excluding for example material published before 1882. Publication dates are given for the first English language edition.

Where the title is given in capitals, I have linked to an image of the book cover.

Please feel free to make suggestions and help me populate the list by posting comments to this blog.

I have attempted to implement a crude rating system.

Books which I would personally recommend without reservation are marked (Rec)

Books marked (???) are included to let you know they exist. I know too little, if anything, about the book or author to recommend them in any way.

For everything else you may assume that either I own a copy, have read positive reviews, have examined the book in detail or am confident in the quality of the author. These books have something to recommend them, depending on your particular interests.

Richard Ridley Farrer A Tour in Greece - 1880 (1882) Greece general ???

J. Theodore Bent The Cyclades or Life among the Insular Greeks (1885, reprinted 2002) Rec

Charles Edwardes Letters from Crete: Letters Written During the Spring of 1886 (1887) ???

Isabel J. Armstrong Two Roving Englishwomen in Greece (1893) ???

Samuel J. Burrows The Isles and Shrines of Greece (1898) Greece general ???

George Horton In Argolis (1902) Greece general ???

Philip Sanford Marden Greece and the Aegean Islands (1907) Greece general ???

Ellen Sophia Bosanquet Days in Attica (1914) ???

Manatt J Irving Aegean Days (1914) ???

Anthony Dell Isles of Greece (1926) ???

W Macheile Dixon Hellas Revisited (1929) Greece general ???

Harry Alverson Franck I Discover Greece - Wherein an Incurable Nomad Sets Forth What Befell Him and an Artist Friend During a Labarynthine Summer Journey Through Modern Hellas. (1929) Greece general ???

George Horton Home of Nymphs and Vampires: the Isles of Greece (1929) ???

V C Scott O'Connor Isles of the Aegean (1929) ???

Frederick Spencer Burnell Wanderings in Greece (1931) Greece general ???

Compton Mackenzie Athenian Memories (1931) first world war, military intelligence ???

Compton Mackenzie Greek Memories (1932) first world war, military intelligence ???

Ernest Gardner Greece and the Aegean (1933) mainland, islands, Constantinople ???

Eric Wharton Wine Dark Seas (1937) islands ???

Bert Birtles Exiles in the Aegean: a Personal Narrative of Greek Politics and Travel (1938) Greece general ???

Ralph Brewster Island of Zeus: Wanderings in Crete (1939) ???

Eric Gifford East of Athens (1939) mainland, islands, Cyprus, Cairo, Palestine

Sidney Hopper Greek Earth (1939) mainland

Dorothy Ratcliffe News of Persephone: Impressions in Northern and Southern Greece with a car, a kettle and cameras (1939) reissued 1941 as 'Grecian Glory' ???

Compton Mackenzie Aegean Memories (1940) first world war, military intelligence ???

Henry Miller The Colossus of Maroussi (1941) Greece general Rec

Dilys Powell Remember Greece (1941) Greece general

Peter Gray People of Poros (1942) ???

Dilys Powell The Traveller's Journey is Done (1943) Humfry Payne; archaeologist, Perachora, mainland

Richard Capell Simiomata: a Greek Notebook 1944-1945 (1945) end of war and aftermath

Lawrence Durrell Prospero's Cell (1945) Corfu

W.E. Benyon-Tinker Dust Upon the Sea (1947) World War II, Aegean, Levant Schooner Flotilla Rec

John Lodwick The Filibusters: the Story of the Special Boat Service (1947) World War II, including much on Aegean operations Rec

Willie Snow Ethridge It's Greek to Me (1948) Greece and Balkans, Diplomacy ???

Osbert Lancaster Classical Landscape With Figures (1949) Greece general

Christopher Kininmonth The Children of Thetis: A Study of Islands and Islanders in the Aegean (1949)

W. Stanley Moss Ill Met by Moonlight (1950) World War II, Crete

Rex Warner Views of Attica and its Surroundings (1950)

Lilian Brown Cleopatra Slept Here (1951) Samos

Walter Thomas Dare to be Free (1951) Crete, Mount Athos, world war 2 escapism ???

Lawrence Durrell Reflections on a Marine Venus: a Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes (1953) Rec

Xan Fielding The Stronghold: an account of the four seasons in the White Mountains of Crete (1953)

A.M. Rendell Appointment in Crete: the story of a British Agent (1953) World War II

Goran Schildt In the Wake of Odysseus (1953) Italy, Greece and Greek Islands yachting Rec

Xan Fielding Hide and Seek: the Story of a War-Time Agent (1954) World War II, Crete Rec

Robert Liddell Aegean Greece (1954)

Barbara Whelpton A Window on Greece (1954) Greece general ???

George Psychoundakis The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation (1955)

Harold Freed Alderfer I like Greece (1956) ???

Gerald Durrell My Family and Other Animals (1956) Corfu

John Kinross (Lord) Portrait of Greece (1956) mainland, Crete, islands ???

Anne Anthony Greek holiday (1957) Greece general

Lawrence Durrell Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (1957)

Monica Krippner BEYOND ATHENS, Journeys through Greece (1957) mainland and islands

Clarence Lee ATHENIAN ADVENTURE - with Alarums and Excursions (1957) ???

Dilys Powell AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART (1957) Perachora, mainland

Patrick Anderson FIRST STEPS IN GREECE (1958) mainland, islands

Charmian Clift Mermaid Singing (1958) Kalymnos Rec

Patrick Leigh Fermor Mani (1958) southern mainland Rec

Robert Liddell The Morea (1958) Peloponnese

John Lincoln (nom de plume for Maurice Cardiff) ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE: an Eastern Aegean Exploit (1958) World War II, Lesbos and Samos Rec

Kevin Andrews The Flight of Ikaros (1959) mainland : civil war period

Charmian Clift PEEL ME A LOTUS (1959) Hydra Rec

Goran Schildt The Sea of Icarus (1959) Venice, Dalmatia, Greece and Greek Islands Yachting

Helen Miller Greek Horizons (1961) mainland and islands ???

Eric and Barbara Whelpton Greece and the Islands (1961) ???

Christopher Rand Grecian Calendar (1962) Greece general

Patrick Anderson DOLPHIN DAYS: a literary companion to Mediterranean pleasures (1963) mainland, Ionian islands

Stephen Toulmin Night Sky at Rhodes (1963) Islands and Turkey

Leslie Finer Passport to Greece: an Informal Guide to Enjoying the Country (1964) ???

Michael Carroll Gates of the Wind (1965) Sporades

Brenda Chamberlain A Rope of Vines (1965) Hydra

Robert Liddell Mainland Greece (1965) north of Corinth

Robert Payne The Isles of Greece (1965)

Michael Smith The Great Island: a Study of Crete (1965)

Lucile and George Brockway GREECE, A CLASSICAL TOUR WITH EXTRAS (1966) mainland, islands

Patrick Leigh Fermor.Roumeli (1966) northern mainland Rec

Ethel Beer Marvellous Greece: an Appreciation of the Country and its People (1967) ???

Peter Bull It Isn't All Greek to Me (1967) Paxos

Elias Kulukundis Journey to a Greek Island (1967) Kassos

Frederick Will From a Year in Greece (1967) mainland, islands, Turkey ???

Carola Matthews The Mad Pomegranate Tree: an Image of Modern Greece (1968) Greece general Rec

Colin Simpson Greece: the Unclouded Eye (1968) Greece general Rec

Robin Bryans Crete (1969) ???

Gerald Durrell BIRDS, BEASTS AND RELATIVES (1969) Corfu

Lawrence Durrell (Alan G. Thomas ed.) Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel (1969) includes Greece and Cyprus

Joseph Braddock Sappho's Island: a Paean for Lesbos (1970) ???

Herbert Kubly Gods and Heroes (1970) Greece general

William Travis Bus Stop Symi (1970)

Anne Anthony Greece: Hut and Highrise (1971) Greece general ???

Ian Brook (nom de plume for Ian Brinkworth) A Sea Blue Boat and a Sun God's Island (1971) Rhodes

Carola Matthews At the Top of the Muletrack (1971) Amorgos

Jack Causton Skiathos: the Shaded Isle (1972) island guide with contributions from local expatriates ???

Henry Miller First Impressions of Greece (1973)

John Pierson Island in Greece (1973) Syros ???

Dilys Powell The Villa Ariadne (1973) Crete Rec

Theodore Stephanides Island Trails (1973) Islands general, mainly Corfu

Brian Dicks RHODES (1974)

David MacNeil Doren Winds of Crete (1974)

Glyn Hughes Fair Prospects: Journeys in Greece (1976) ???

Brian Dicks Corfu (1977)

Jackson Webb The Last Lemon Grove (1977) Crete

Gerald Durrell The Garden of the Gods (1978) Corfu

Lawrence Durrell The Greek Islands (1978) Rec

Arthur Foss Epirus (1978) northern Greece ???

Gwendolyn Macewen Mermaids and Icons: a Greek Summer (1978) mainland, islands

John Ebdon Ebdon's Odyssey (1979) Andros, Cos

George Moussa Paros the White Island: a Comprehensive Guide to Paros and Antiparos (1980) ???

Peter Levi The Hill of Kronos (1981) Greece general

Brian Dicks Portrait of Southern Greece (1982)

George Galt Trailing Pythagoras (1982) Reissued 1988 as 'A journey through the Aegean islands'

John Ebdon EBDON'S ILIAD (1983) Rhodes, Kos and Karpathos

Peter Greenhalgh and Edward Eliopoulos Deep into Mani: Journey to the Southern Tip of Greece (1985)

Brian Dicks THE GREEK ISLANDS (1986)

Murray Elliott Vasili - Lion of Crete (1987) Special Operations Executive, Crete, world war 2

Nicholas Gage HELLAS: a Portrait of Greece (1987)

Arthur Eperon Eperon's Guide to the Greek Islands (1988) a good tourist guidebook of the '80s' with enough anecdotal material and reflection to set it apart

Oliver Burch Under Mount Ida: a Journey into Crete (1989) ???

ohn Ebdon Near Myths (1989) Crete, Symi, Rhodes

Willard Manus This Way to Paradise: Dancing on the Tables (1989) Lindos, Rhodes Rec

Mimi Summerskill Aegean Summer: a Family Odyssey (1990) sailing in 1965

Nancy Raeburn Mykonos: a Memoir (1992) ???

Christopher Thorne Between the Seas (1992) Crete ???

Sara Wheeler AN ISLAND APART: Travels in Evia (1992) reissued 2007 as 'Evia: Travels on an Undiscovered Greek Island'

Michael Woodbine Parish.AEGEAN ADVENTURES 1940-43 and the end of Churchill's Dream (1993) Aegean : World War II memoirs

Lawrence Davey Going After Feta (1994) ???

John Gill The Stars Over Paxos (1995) ???

Tim Salmon The Unwritten Places (1995) Pindos mountains, northern Greece

Adrian Seligman War in the Islands: Undercover Operations in the Aegean 1942-4 (1996) Rec

Patricia Storace DINNER WITH PERSEPHONE (1996) Greece general

Geoffrey Kirk Towards the Aegean Sea: a Wartime Memoir (1997) World War II, Levant Schooner Flotilla Rec

Katherine Kizilos The Olive Grove: Travels in Greece (1997)

Ernle Bradford (Francis Pagan ed.) The Companion Guide to the Greek Islands (1998) Revised edition of classic islands guide

Fionnula Brennan On a Greek Island: a Personal Experience (1998) Paros ???

Edmund Keeley Inventing Paradise: The Greek Journey 1937-47 (1999) literary criticism

Larry Habegger Travellers' Tales: Greece - True Stories (2000) quality holiday reading

Anthony Cox Still Life in Crete (2001) ???

David Roessel In Byron's Shadow: modern Greece in the English and American Imagination (2002) Greece in western literature 1770 - 1939

Tom Stone The Summer of my Greek Taverna (2002) Patmos

Byron Ayanoglu Crete on a Half Shell: a Story About an Island, Good Friends and Food (2003) ???

Edward Enfield Greece on my Wheels (2003) ???

Patrick Leigh Fermor (Artemis Cooper ed.) Words of Mercury (2003) collection of pieces from books, journalism and letters, including Greece Rec

George Hellyer In Calypso's Thrall: an American's Decade in a greek Village (2004) Corfu ???

John Mole Its all Greek to Me! (2004) Evia

Barry Unsworth Crete (2004)

John Waller Greek Walls: an Odyssey in Corfu (2004)

Sofka Zinovieff EURYDICE STREET - a Place in Athens (2004)

Roger Jinkinson Tales form a Greek Island (2005) Karpathos

Rory Maclean FALLING FOR ICARUS: a Journey Among the Cretans (2005)

Lina Anritz DREAM SEEKING: on Nisyros a Small Greek Island (2006)

Christopher Somerville The Golden Step: a Walk Through the Heart of Crete (2008)

Ursula Haselden Orchids for Aphrodite: Aegean Odyssey (2009) sailing, Greece and Turkey

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Search Bot Indexing: greece travel greek islands travel aegean islands travel ionian islands travel dodecanese islands travel cyclades islands travel greece travel writing greek islands travel writing greece bibliography greek islands bibliography holiday reading greece reading greek islands reading books about greece books about greek islands greece travel literature greek islands travel literature aegean books dodecanese books cyclades books ionian books egina books poros books hydra books spetses books andros books tinos books mykonos books delos books syros books naxos books paros books amorgos books ios books thira books santorini books crete books rhodes books symi books kos books leros books patmos books samos books lesbos books lesvos books thassos books skiathos books skopelos books evvia books euboea books corfu books paxos books kefallonia books ithaca books zakynthos books

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who links to my website?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------