Powell, D: An Affair of the Heart (Independent Voices)

"An Affair of the Heart" is that rare gem in travel writing, an unforgettable evocation of a country and its people on intimate knowledge and lasting affection. Hailed as a classic when it was first published more than fifty years ago, it has stood the test of time and is still regarded as one of the most outstanding books on Greece ever written. Dilys Powell, remembered, as the leading film critic of her day, spent many years is Greece before the Second World War, when her husband was Director of the British School of Archaeology in Athens. After his tragic early death she came back to Britain and it was only in 1945 that she was able to return. She set out to renew her love affair with the places and people she had known. She found hem changed and was at first disillusioned. But as she returned again and again she came to understand that although Greece, like an absent lover, had grown and moved on, its spirit was immortal, still the country of her heart. In this personal odyssey Dilys Powell not only gives a deeply moving account of her journeys, but draws us in to share her joy in a timeless land and its gallant, indestructible people.