The Hero of Negropont
Tales of Travellers, Turks, Greeks and a Camel
A travel book, a comedy, a history, a fiction
Between Ancient Greece and Modern Greece were four centuries of Turkish Greece. Join Lord Exford on his not-so-grand tour of this fascinating time.
To escape debt and summonses, rakish Exford is exiled in 1788 to Constantinople. His travelling companions are Winstanley, a prudish tutor and Higgins, a truculent artist. They are shipwrecked on a Greek island ruled by a tyrannical Turkish pasha and populated with stories of passion and delusion. Star-crossed lovers, renegades and minstrels, pirates and djinn are just some of the characters our travellers encounter.
They also meet Amelia Burbage, a botanist, feminist and intrepid explorer. She travels alone with a Syrian servant and an irascible camel.
Befuddled by passion, hashish and his classical education, Exford’s tutor Winstanley falls in love with a beautiful Greek girl destined for the harems of Constantinople. He takes on the might of the Sultan to rescue her. It is left to the wily Exford to save his eccentric band from an unspeakable fate.
The Clash of Civilisations, East and West, Christian and Muslim, has been with us since the Turks besieged Vienna nearly five hundred years ago. In The Hero of Negropont Ottoman meets Georgian. The adventures of the reluctant Grand Tourists owe less to Homer than Drury Lane and the brand new musical comedy of the time.
‘Readers are in for a treat’ – ARGO, journal of the Hellenic Society, London