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BOOK IT

Transport yourself to Greece with Olympic Holidays’ favourite book list.

Our first recommendation is from Olympic Holidays’ customer, friend and Grecophile Paulene Green.

Paulene and her husband Ron, from West Sussex, usually travel to Greece at least twice a year and love the off-the-beaten-track studio or apartment holiday as well as recently staying at the Skiathos Palace, in Skiathos, for the occasional luxury.

View of the pool at Skiathos Palace Hotel

Paulene says: "Someone told me about the Brighton-based fiction writer Beryl Darby who writes stories about individual characters in Elounda, Crete".

"She’s an independent author with 25 published novels to her name and they follow the amazing lives of different family members in the town from 1918".

Elounda Bay
Panoramic view of the gulf of Elounda

"Beryl’s books can be found on Kindle and you can order books via her website Beryl Darby Books (once we are all allowed out to play again)".

"The titles have simple names: YANNIS, ANNA, GIOVANNI, JOSEPH, CHRISTABELLE, SAFFRON, NICOLA, MANOLIS, CATHY, VASI, ALECOS, JOHN, TASSOS, RONNIE, MARIA, SOFIA, BABBIS, STELIOS, KYRIAKOS, MONIKA, EMMANUEL, THEO, PHAEDRA, EVGENIY and LUDMILA – all gorgeous family novels".

Fishing boats in Elounda village
View of the Elounda port

"I wrote to Beryl and told her how much I loved her work and she added my quote to the back of one of her books. I was really made up by that".

"Each book has a photo of a character on the front cover and the people of Elounda clamour to have their picture taken. Beryl usually spends a great deal of time in Elounda and is quite a celebrity there".

"Reading her books certainly transports you to the island – you almost feel Crete's warm salty breeze!"

Share your favourite novels by emailing us at Marketing@olympicholidays.com and tell us why they are such good reads!

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