Crete (12 page)
Tastes differ, in places as in most other things; and as we know, it is useless to argue about them. Often enough it is what the place stands for as much as what it is in itself that draws our regard or rouses our affection. I took to Mirtos immediately, not only because it is peaceful and prettyâthere are still quite a lot of places on the island that fit this descriptionâbut because it has been terribly mistreated in the past, and yet has restored and renewed itself. And so it comes to represent what I feel about the history and the spirit of Crete as a whole.
At Mirtos, sitting at an outside table of the Votsalo tavern, with the sea just below and a warm breeze wafting over from Africa, glasses of the excellent Greek Mythos beer at our elbows and the resident cats showing great interest in our mutton chops, we had to start thinking about getting back to Iraklion and then home to Italy. The trip had been a success for both of us, in slightly different ways. For Aira, seeing the island for the first time and adding it to her list of places to see again. And for me, seeing it again and finding it essentially as I remembered. To leave them always with regret is the gift some placesânot so manyâmake us. It's the gift life itself makes us, if we are lucky.
Leonard Cottrell
The Bull of Minos
(London, 1953)
Costis Davaras
Guide to Cretan Antiquities
(Athens, 1976)
Xan Fielding
The Stronghold
(London, 1953)
Mihalis G. Andrianakis
The Holy Patriarchal Monastery of Agia Triada
(Chania, 1994)
Nikos Psilakis
Byzantine Churches and Monasteries of Crete
(Iraklion, 1994)
Oliver Rackham and Jennifer Moody
The Making of the Cretan Landscape
(Manchester University Press, 1996)
Adam Hopkins
Crete: Its Past, Present & People
(London, 1977)
John Fisher and Geoff Garvey
The Rough Guide: Crete
(Fourth Edition, London, 1998)
Michael Llewellyn Smith
The Great Island
(London, 1965)
Theocharis E. Detorakis
History of Crete
(Iraklion, 1994)
Sonia Greger
Letters from Lasithi
1984â1993 (Gorgona Books, 1993)
Joan Evans
Time and Chance
(London, 1943)
Beryl Darby
Spinalonga: The Leper Island
(Athens, 2001)
J. D. S. Pendlebury
A Handbook to the Palace of Minos at Knossos
(London, 1932)
Barry Unsworth won the Booker Prize in 1992 for
Sacred Hunger;
his next novel,
Morality Play,
was a Booker nominee and a bestseller both in the United States and in Great Britain. His other novels include
Pascali's Island, After Hannibal, The Hide, Losing Nelson,
and
The Songs of the Kings.
He lives in Umbria, Italy, with his wife, Aira.
OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES
JAN MORRIS
A Writer's House in Wales
OLIVER SACKS
Oaxaca Journal
W. S. MERWIN
The Mays of Ventadorn
WILLIAM KITTREDGE
Southwestern Homelands
DAVID MAMET
South of the Northeast Kingdom
GARRY WILLS
Mr. Jefferson's University
A. M. HOMES
Los Angeles: People, Places, and the Castle on the Hill
JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN
The Island: Martinique
FRANCINE PROSE
Sicilian Odyssey
SUSANNA MOORE
I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawaiâi
LOUISE ERDRICH
Book and Islands in Ojibwe Country
KATHRYN HARRISON
The Road to Santiago
ARIEL DORFMAN
Desert Memories: Journeys Through the Chilean North
UPCOMING AUTHORS
HOWARD NORMAN
on Nova Scotia
ANNA QUINDLEN
on London
ROBERT HUGHES
on Barcelona
JAMAICA KINCAID
on Nepal
DIANE JOHNSON
on Paris
PETER CAREY
on Japan
GEOFFREY WOLFF
on Maine
JON LEE ANDERSON
on Andalucia
WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON
on Western Ireland
Featuring works by some of the world's most prominent and highly regarded literary figures, National Geographic Directions captures the spirit of travel and of place for which National Geographic is renowned, bringing fresh perspective and renewed excitement to the art of travel writing.
