Victoria Hislop’s GREECE

I am often asked what sparked my passion for Greece and when this love affair began. I can answer the first without hesitation (the thrill of my first visit), and the second with total precision (23 July 1976). In the intervening four decades, I have been to Greece countless times, travelled to almost every town, worked there, bought a house in Crete and rented an apartment in Athens. Even so, each time I go, I think of that first time.

Back in the mid 70s, my mother was recently separated and, after many years of being a housewife, she had started working again in order to make her own living. She earned enough for the basics and I had a weekend job from the age of 13 for everything else I wanted – flares, green eyeshadow, books, Led Zeppelin