Victoria Hislop: The Island

Victoria Hislop came to visit Rethymnon on 7th February to talk about her award winning book ‘The Island’. This was followed by a book-signing at the new Mediterraneo bookstore in Paleologou Street. The event was very well attended and inspired a considerable amount of debate amongst us Rethymniots — most notably perhaps about the way in which we do or do not communicate about illness, disability and stigma.

‘The Island’ is a historical novel which is based around the island of Spinalonga, Eastern Crete. From 1903 until in 1957, Spinalonga had the dubious distinction of being Greece’s chief leper colony. Victoria’s book is complex. It is a work of romantic fiction, portraying an outsider’s impressionistic view of Crete, dealing with a sensitive topic which has generally been ignored by writers. The stigma attached to leprosy persists, even today. For example, Victoria found that initial enthusiasm expressed by potential publishers in ‘a love story set on a Greek island’ often rapidly waned with the additional information that the island had been a leper colony. Happily, though, eventually a sympathetic publisher was found.

Victoria started her talk by saying a few words about why she wrote ’The Island’. She said that from the first moment she stepped onto Spinalonga — as a tourist on a family day-trip, she felt that there was a story waiting to be written. Whilst it was clear that the leprosy patients on the island must have had strength to survive their ordeal, she also got a strong sense that the island had not been an entirely dark and desperate place, and that people may even have experienced happiness from time to time.

Even fifty years on, there is a lot of evidence remaining which gives an indication of what daily life must have been like on Spinalonga. This is one of the reasons that Victoria decided not to base her characters on real people, but to rely mainly on her imagination. She did, however, research the disease of leprosy thoroughly: for example by consulting experts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and by referring to medical text-books of the 1930’s and 1940’s- in themselves useful for gaining insight into attitudes towards the disease at the time. She also made many visits to Spinalonga itself. Every time she went, she noticed a different detail that contributed to her story.

When talking about the way she described Crete, Victoria said she ‘held up a mirror’. She felt that as an outsider she was perhaps better placed to pinpoint idiosyncrasies of the Cretan personality than people who have lived here all their lives. Hard for us at the Bugle to comment on this one! We suggest you read the book and form your own opinions...

All in all, it was a highly enjoyable and informative evening. Our thanks to all who helped to organize this event.

Leprosy has been eradicated in Europe, but it continues to be a serious problem in many other parts of the world. LEPRA is a charity that provides treatment to sufferers and gives education and information about the disease. You can find out more about their work at the www.lepra.org.uk website.

Cocktail of the Month: Irish Eyes

In honour of St Patrick’s Day this month, we chose a cocktail with an Irish theme. Though having read the recipe we think the name of the cocktail should be changed from ‘Irish Eyes’ to ‘Cross-Eyed’. Anyway, here goes with the ingredients:

1oz Kilbeggan Irish whiskey (you know what, in Rethymnon we’ll let you off if you make do with Jameson’s), ¼oz green crème de menthe, 2oz heavy cream. Shake over ice and strain into a tumbler. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Dance a little jig and start singing sentimental folk songs….