Whether they’re opening their lives up for public inspection, or through the exploratory lens of therapy, you will enjoy these laugh-out-loud New York Times best-sellers, Anna Roins suggests. Becoming, by Michele Obama (Crown, 13 Nov 2018) It’s been said that ‘First ladies are, for the most part, second-hand celebrities...
Read moreThe Irish Embassy, in collaboration with Athens Insider, announces its first-ever Bloomsday creative writing competition in English, open to writers of all ages and nationalities. Bloomsday is marked around the world as a celebration of James Joyce, of course, but also as a celebration of Irish literature, modernist writing and creativity...
Read moreThe Acropolis of Athens is a fair test of our commitment to humankind’s higher cultural aspirations. In ordinary times, Athenians have ten thousand good excuses to postpone the Acropolis until next month or next lifetime. These are not ordinary times. For an able-bodied resident of Athens not to take advantage of this opportunity is to fa...
Read moreEditions Assouline's dreamy coffee table books often are as attractive as the destinations they cover. Its latest addition, the Athens Riviera coffee table book is a stunning photo album that retraces the history and spirit of Athens and its inhabitants. Discover a city that we have known for millennia, but whose contemporaneity is too of...
Read moreIn his delightful way, Stephen Fry dips back into the ancient world with stories of tests, quests and feats of old as he celebrates his love for Athens in the thisisathens podcast series. Greek heroes and the Gods who meddle in their fates get retold in Fry’s distinctive voice as he undoubtedly adds something lively, humorous and intimate...
Read moreWHAT: With the theme "Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion", International Museum Day 2020 focus on the potential of museums to create meaningful experiences for peoples of all origins and backgrounds is central to their social value. Following lockdowns, International Museum Day 2020 is going digital! The Benaki Museum takes part with ...
Read moreThere’s a palpable change in the Spring air, and it’s not just the scent of budding thyme leaves being warmed by the sun. A new genre of the novel has arrived as a rebuke to the ceaseless grim tidings all around us – political, economic and environmental: and it’s called “Up lit”. Readers, it seems, are now voting for life-affirming stori...
Read moreThe Museum of Cycladic Art and its magnificent exhibition "Picasso and Antiquity. Line and Clay" was awarded the International Audience Award by Youniversal at the sixth annual Global Fine Art Awards (GFAA), which took place online on 11 May. The recognition is all the sweeter when it is a small Greek museum pitted against the...
Read moreKonstantinos Patsios’ upcoming exhibition in Budapest and Paris is a tangle of paint, paper and irony that revisits the female form. It decodes the artist’s interest in feminine and feminist issues, using known painting metaphors long ignored by the male-dominated art world. Using recognizable motifs from classic works of the ...
Read moreJohn Carr reviews Leo Kanaris’ gripping potboilers with private eye George Zafiris. Both Codename Xenophon and Dangerous Days are spiked with Zafiris’ incisive descriptions of Athens and its resilient crisis- scarred people. Whether you opt for the beach or balcony to snuggle with these thrillers, before long, you’ll be rooting for the un...
Read moreDimitris Dassios’ itinerant sartorial style brings alive the sensual vibrance of an Oriental souk with the meticulous tailoring of an Italian couture house. Swarovski crystals, semiprecious gems, Indian zari, cultivated pearls, intricate 19th century Turkish embroidery, mirrors and tassles – and over-sized flowers – find their way into hi...
Read morePlato famously said, “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter in.” Navine G. Khan-Dossos’ geometric art comforts and provokes, drawing inspiration as much from the full sweep of Islamic traditions as well as from the digital realm. Working between London and Athens, her art treats geometry not as an abstraction but as something essentially ...
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