When abroad, speak as locals speak, recommends an old expats’ mantra on assimilation Thanks to John Carr and Paul Anastasi’s Your Eyes Fourteen: The Mad Greek Dictionary, the time-consuming task of mastering colloquial Greek is no longer an arduous trip to “the devil’s mother that will get the olive oil out of you”.The authors discuss each saying’s origins in terms of national history and psychology. Familiarise

A selection of weekly commentaries on how Greece dysfunctions “Thank you for calling the Pasok hotline:• If you want to register a complaint, please press 1• If you want to whine in mild frustration, please press 2• If you want to stamp your feet and have a fit, please press 3”Mark Dragoumis puts Greece back on the therapy chair in Greece on the Couch 2, a

How a series of disasters resulted in happiness for an English couple on a Greek island. What does an urban British couple know about runaway turkeys, out-of-control egg production and the finer points of manure selection? Not much! But that doesn't stop Michael and Pauline from embarking on their harebrained dream of building a home, and a new life, in a Greek village.Michael Saunders wrote a

“The Greeks must accept unreservedly, unequivocally, unconditionally that they are in no way superior beings deserving special treatment. There are no such things as ‘the inalienable rights of Hellenism’.” Mark Dragoumis, author of The Greek Economy, selects 32 enlightening pieces from Analyse This, his popular weekly column for the Athens News. With his characteristic wit, pathos and unsparing commentary, Dragoumis sits Greece on the couch to

When friends ask about Greece, give them this book (or three bottles of ouzo). Brian Church, author of Learn Greek in 25 Years, selects 30 memorable pieces from his Athens News column “Church on Sunday”.Why do Greeks always argue yet never fight?In which year will the 2004 Athens Olympics take place?Why is reversing on a motorway illegal?Answers in Always on Sunday. 

Greece is a country famed worldwide for its physical beauty, wealth of antiquities and other vestiges of its unsurpassed ancient civilisation. Yet despite over ten million annual visitors and an open and inviting culture, modern Greece is not an easy country for outsiders to understand or comprehend fully. Countless tourist guides extol its resorts and archaeological tomes unravel its classical past, but there are few

If you have tried, tried and tried again to learn Greek - and always failed miserably - then this is the book for you. In 25 humorous yet helpful lessons, Brian Church takes you through the minefields of Modern Greek and gets blown up by every single one.