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127 pages

English

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What is life like on a Greek island? Indigo and turquoise seas, white sands, wine, salads and cheese? Yes, and handsome dark-eyed waiters too! But why not delve deeper and discover the passions, feuds and exuberance of the islanders. Be ready to be charmed, captivated and maybe shocked!Join Peter and Serena, an English couple, drowning in a quagmire of bureaucracy as they try to start a new life on the island and struggle to get a licence to open a business. Will they make it?Meet Apollo (brown) and Hortensia (grey), two island donkeys owned by the sadistic Aristides whom Apollo has named Arsie . They see everything as they go with Arsie on his rounds, the effects of draconian government measures to raise money for the country's debt, the rabid tax evasion, the manipulation of EU grants - everything. Unhindered by human logic their comments are pithy, straight on the mark, acidic even. But will Apollo be able to save himself and Hortensia, and Eleftheris, another farmer, from Arsie's cruel plans? Stay awhile with the warm, earthy inhabitants of Paradisaki island and join in the rollicking lifestyle, the fun, the laughter and the tears. Cheer them on in their struggle as they use all their wits to survive the political climate and never lose that determination to live, and live well, come what may.

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	14 novembre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781784628420
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0174€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Straight From the Donkey’s Mouth
A Tail of a Greek Island, its People, their Politics - and their Donkeys!
Eleni Trataris Cotton

Copyright © 2014 Eleni Trataris Cotton
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study,
or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with
the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries
concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Matador ®
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ISBN 978 1784628 420
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Matador ® is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

Converted to eBook by EasyEPUB

This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Nikola, whose love and wisdom have protected and guided me to this day.
Contents

Cover

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

EPILOGUE

ANIMAL ORGANISATIONS
ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS
My warm thanks go to Chris Holifield at Writers Services for her unfailing encouragement, to Sheela Hammond for being such an enthusiastic reader, to my friends for their interest and encouragement, particularly Eve Yiannakis , Tim and Sally Lloyd, Neil and Fotini Bowyer and Paul and Denise Foster. My love and thanks to my wonderful and whacky family for always being there for me, to John my husband, for his reading task and Francis for his original ideas and stoicism in vetting changes and reading the manuscript again and again and again... to Stephen and Peter for their marketing suggestions, to Helen, Francis and Matti who worked at putting my first cover ideas onto paper, to Nick who helped out with a cover photograph and Mark who was a most effective devil’s advocate. All the family fingers dipped into the pie at some point!
Last but not least, my thanks to the publishing team, Rachel, Jennifer, Lauren and particularly Chelsea who was infinitely patient with my endless questions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eleni Trataris Cotton lives in the south east of England with her husband John and spends some months each year in Greece. Five of her children live close by but Mark and his family escaped to the Wirral. She was born in Malawi and part of her heart is still there.
FOREWORD

Greece is struggling!
Years after the corruption of its politicians and the mismanagement of its economy exploded onto screens and newspaper headlines all over the world, the ruling elite is still up to its old tricks, spiriting away its euros to off-shore havens, neglecting to pay taxes and generally ignoring the laws of the land. And guess who is being made to pick up the tab? The population of course!
But it was not for nothing that Churchill said during the second world war that “until now, we knew that the Greeks were fighting like heroes; from now on we shall say that the heroes fight like Greeks.”
By unspoken agreement the Greeks are fighting back. They have formed an unseen army, one that fights not with guns but with wits. Their aim? First to outmanoeuvre their political masters and wrest just a little of the EU largesse from the greedy elite; and second, to resist being bled to death by taxation.
The result? An army of mercenaries, an army with a shared mission but with many differing and opposing objectives. It’s every man or woman for him or herself. It’s survival of the fittest. It’s about allies and alliances, factions and feuds and tragedy and tears; but because they are Greeks there is always time for fun and feasting, for laughter and loving, because the Greek spirit is untameable.
The scene has been set for a very interesting period in Greek political and social history, but how will non-Greeks be affected, people who are planning to start a new life in the country, people like Serena and Peter, who love Greece and want to make their home there?
PROLOGUE

It was a cold January evening and Serena stood at the front door of her home, fumbling for her keys. It was dark, although it was only five o’ clock in the evening and a blustery wind was showing signs of working itself up into a tantrum. A fine rain danced on her face and made everything glisten in the subdued light of the street lamps; Serena turned the key in the lock and hurried in out of the cold. Her cheeks glowed with the gentle buffeting from the wind and the rain and she shivered a little as she put down her bulky briefcase and pulled off her gloves.
I should have come in the back door, she thought as she tugged off her boots and noticed the wet trail she had left through the hall. She went into the cloakroom, turned on the light and put her boots on the shoe rail, then pulled off her coat and scarf and draped them across two clothes pegs. The central heating will soon have those dry, she thought.
She caught a glimpse of herself in the long, narrow, gold-framed mirror. What a mess I look, she thought, and pushed her silky bob away from her face and tucked it behind her ears. Her big brown eyes, shadowed now with fatigue, stared back at her. A tough way to make a living, she informed her reflection before walking back into the hall. She looked down at her briefcase with disgust. That’s this evening gone on marking, she sighed as she picked it up and took it to the large open-plan family room, with the kitchen on one long wall, the dining area to its left and sitting area to the right. The wall opposite the kitchen had French windows which opened onto a large patio and Serena walked across to peer through the window. She grimaced at the patio, now drenched in rain, the plants and the stone floor shining wetly in the light from the family room.
She had barely started a quick supper when there was the sound of a key in the back door and she heard Peter come in shaking the rain off himself, hastily hanging up his wet coat and putting his boots to dry in the back vestibule.
“Hello,” he called out before bursting into the family room, his large and vital presence making the room seem smaller than it had been a few minutes before. His rugged, good-natured face beamed at his petite wife as he joined her at the cooker and planted a smacking kiss on the top of her head.
“You look as though you’ve had a perm,” Serena said. “Unlike my hair which just goes into rats’ tails when it gets wet.”
“Never mind my hair,” he said, green eyes crinkling at the corners as he sniffed appreciatively, “Something smells good! Spag Bol, isn’t it? Can I help?”
Serena turned to smile up at him. “Yes it is and you could lay the table. Food will be ready in about fifteen minutes. Oh, and could you grate some cheese please?”
“I’m on it!” replied Toby. “ I’m starving and fifteen minutes sounds great.”
A short while later they were sitting across from each other eating their evening meal and commenting on the fact that for five days of the week they didn’t see each other or their home in daylight.
“It’s awful when you think about it,” said Serena. “We leave the house in darkness and we come back in darkness.”
Peter nodded. “I was thinking that this morning when I set off for work.”
Serena twirled some spaghetti round her fork. “And most people seem mildly depressed now that Christmas is over. “
Peter was matter of fact. “It’s the usual thing. If it was a good Christmas you’re sad that it’s over and there’s nothing else to celebrate on the horizon. And, if you’ve over-spent, as very many have, you’re worried about paying it back.”
It was at that moment that, as Peter put it later, a flash bulb went off in his mind, exposing an idea that had darted across his thoughts for many months. He put down his fork and spoon.
“Serena,” he said, “let’s go to Greece. Let’s open an English language school!”
Serena looked at him, startled.
“Peter, are you serious?”
“Yes, I am. Let’s do something exciting whilst we’re still young and before we start a family. We both love Greece and the Greek people. We love the lifestyle. We save all year to holiday there; let’s make it our home for a few years. And let’s do something worthwhile while we’re there.”
Serena put down her fork. Her eyes were alight with excitement as she leaned towards her husband and smiled at him.
“That’s been my secret, impossible dream for months. Yes, yes and yes!
CHAPTER ONE
It was a dark night, the path barely discernible as a lighter strip than the shadowy bushes on either side. The hills ahead were huge dark mounds without a flicker of light anywhere. It was the hour before dawn, a black sky overhead and a chill in the air, a time when most people slept their deepest sleep.
Apollo’s tail swung from side to side in irritation and his long ears lay back, flat with tension. Riding him was Aristides, a local farmer who sat sideways on a wooden saddle, his shoulders hunched, a cigarette