Will I love The Colossus of Maroussi?

The Colossus of Maroussi is a book all wanderers and visitors of Greece should dip into at least once.

It’s a travelogue that drips with humour from the brilliant Henry Miller. It is a collection of fantastic prose inspired by the islands and mainland that Miller visited in the early 20th Century. It offers great wit and wisdom as well as cultural insights that still feel incredibly relevant to Greece today, despite the book being published in the 1940s.

When I think of great travel literature, this book is a classic. It speaks on the Greek people - their strength,… show more.

Henry Miller spent nine months in Greece in 1939-40 and was completely smitten even as the shadows of war lengthened. Miller was a keen observer, but one who knew almost nothing about Greece. His acute and very personal descriptions of the country and the characters he met perfectly capture a moment in time—it’s a very different Greece now, but still recognizable in the country’s humane spirit, the way Greeks maximize every moment of joy that comes their way.