Harley and the Holy Mountain is about a road trip from the island
of Evia, through central Greece and ending at the monastic state of
Mount Athos. It is a sequel to It's All Greek To Me! with similar
humour, self-deprecation, entertaining stories, and insights into
today's Greece. Greeks are brought up to believe they are direct
descendants of the Ancient Greeks whose language they speak. They
also believe they are custodians of the one true religion,
Orthodoxy, the defining characteristic of Greekness for two
thousand years. As we meander north we encounter the key moments in
three thousand years of history that every Greek is familiar with
and create their sense of who they are. Some are celebrated, for
example the War of Independence from the Ottomans, others are no
less powerful but unspoken, like the Civil War of 1946-49. We come
across the different peoples that created today's Greece. A hundred
years ago the first language of half the population was not Greek
but any one of Albanian, Aromanian, Macedonian, Pomak, Tsakonian,
Romaniote, Ladino, Romani, Turkish, Italian and half a dozen
Anatolian dialects with all their racial and cultural baggage.
Having travelled through time and space, I leave Harley at the
frontier of Athos and plunge into a spiritual dimension.
Wonder-working icons and relics are channels to the divine;
everyday miracles are part of nature; the marvellous deeds of
saints are facts not metaphors. Their reality permeates Greek
culture and sense of self. Greece is two hundred years old. Out of
a patchwork of cultures and languages Greeks have forged a
homogeneous European nation. Since the bloody revolution against
the Ottomans, Greeks have resisted British, French, Russian,
German, Italian, Bulgarian and American incursion, invasion or
domination. The struggle continues for independence from the
Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington institutions that control its
finances. Through turbulence and disaster Greeks have created a
vibrant, enterprising, European democracy with a unique identity.
It is an extraordinary story of an extraordinary people. Harley and
the Holy Mountain joins in the celebration. And the fun.
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