With the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival https://greekfestivalofsydney.com.au/…/greek-australian… being held this Sunday, I thought I would post about some of the sessions that we are running this year. I have read many of the books which are being presented this year.

Reading Note 85: We will be launching Shelley Dark’s Hydra in Winter on Sunday. This is such a wonderful and delightful read. Part genealogical study, part history, another part memoir and writing guide. I loved how Shelley Dark expresses her every day, researching her family’s first ancestor in Australia, Ghikas Voulgaris. Voulgaris was a Greek-Hydriot sailor turned pirate captured off the coast of Malta, and sent to 7 years in the colony of New South Wales in the early 19th century. Voulgaris leaves Hydra as a young man during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829), yet he never returns to Greece, staying in the colony of New South Wales for the rest of his life despite receiving a pardon and free repatriation after he had served his time.

I love the Argo-Saronic islands of Greece and have visited Hydra many times while visiting my aunt on the nearby island of Poros. Poros itself gets a brief visit from Dark on her way to Hyrda which in winter transforms back to a tourist-free haven with a long-time literary tradition.

Shelley Dark’s book launch is at 3pm at the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival. Tickets are $15 for the whole day and includes lunch. https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1347314

The Festival Blurb:

In Hydra in Winter, Dark sets off for her husband’s ancestral island in search of the story of Ghikas Voulgaris, one of seven Hydriot pirates captured and sent to Australia as convicts in the early 1800s. What begins as a historical quest also becomes a lesson in slow travel—walking Hydra’s hills, delighting in Greek seafood and wine, and meeting the relaxed and ever-hospitable locals. Her sojourn on Hydra later sparked a much longer research journey, taking her to Malta, Portsmouth, the Kew Archives in London, and Ireland to further investigate the pirate for her historical novel about the pirate, Son of Hydra, due for publication in 2025. In conversation with Festival Director Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos.