"Memoir that revels in glimmering snapshot impressions ... subtle and intriguing ... absurd comedy ... hilarious"
Foreword Clarion Reviews
These are real memories. This volume has two parts. The first, The big, bad teacher, describes school teaching and private tuition in inner-city London (plus some memories of my own schooldays). The second, Doing violence to the fruit, describes my life in Greece. There is pathos, humour, compassion, irony, resignation. In my photos, the streets are bare. These are the streets I walked on. When I look at them now, I fill them with the people I knew. Reading Fragments, you may do the same....
There are plenty of expats. See Dead Dave and some lively English girls, a kissing consul and a smoking monk. You'll meet my Greek neighbours, along with a pungent landlady. Join me and Bryan on the paths of Mt Athos, and even stay the night in a monastery or two.
In London, you'll find Monica. Help her put her pen back together, then watch us deal with her prying family. Yawn along with the parrot in my boring old lesson, and keep up with Kirin as he stays a step ahead of the awful Mummy. There are more rebellious kids - and a few impressionable ones, like Varahna the piranha and the sideways heart.
From the author
Fragments, anecdotes, random or loosely ordered, like memory. However much you want to, you can't get the past back again. I've tried to do it here in lots of little ways.
