Yannis Andricopoulos
Born on December 24, 1939, Yannis Andricopoulos is a Greek writer, journalist, political commentator, and co-founder of Skyros Holistic holidays. His work is eclectic, ranging from political history and philosophy to memoirs and fiction.
Yannis grew up in Athens where he experienced all the brutality of the Nazi occupation of his country, the horrors of the subsequent war between the British and the pro-communist guerrillas who had fought against the Germans, and then the most destructive civil war which ended years later, in 1949. [1] These early years, when, Yannis said, “death seemed to be hiding around every corner” [2] as well as his university years, the time the student movement for change was dealt with viciously by the extreme right in power, were formative and pervasive in his thinking and writing. But so were the years after he graduated with a BA in Politics, when at the end of 1961 he joined the Greek army as a conscript. His refusal to renounce communism as an evil led to physical maltreatment and threats to his life.
In 1964, Yannis joined the Athens daily newspaper Avghi[3], the morning newspaper of the Left, initially as a labour and then as its parliamentary correspondent. Three years later, in January 1967, he was despatched to London, then in its counter culture heyday, as its correspondent. But following the military coup of April 1967, the Greek military junta [5] closed Avghi down and deprived Yannis of his passport. His work, the colonels claimed, was ‘detrimental to the national interests of Greece’. Yannis wrote: ‘At a stroke, I had lost my country, job and passport.’ [4] Soon afterwards, he took a Ph.D. course in history at London University, did some odd jobs to make ends meet, and in 1968, the year of the French ‘revolution’, spent six months in Paris which radically reshaped his thinking. In 1969, in Lund, Sweden, he was elected by the representatives of the Greek student unions in Europe, as the head of EFEE, the Greek National Union of Students (in exile). In this capacity, he organised a world-wide campaign in support of the anti-dictatorship student movement in Greece which, among others, took him to many cities of the Soviet bloc. From several of them he was either expelled, as in the case of East Berlin or Prague, or moved under the constant watch of the security police, as in the case of Sofia, Budapest or Krakow.
When he finished his Ph.D. on the foreign policy of the Central and South European countries after the advent of Hitler in power in Germany, he focused on the history of Greece in 1944. This was the year the Germans were forced to leave the country and the British stepped in to crash EAM, the left wing resistance movement. He studied the personal papers of prime minister Winston Churchill extensively and this became his first book, 1944, Κρισιμη Χρονια (1944, A Critical Year) published in Athens in 1974. Its content was extensively quoted by most Greek newspapers. In the same year, 1974, Yannis married Dina Glouberman, an American psychotherapist. They met in 1968 and divorced in 1994 and have two children, Ari and Chloe. He contributed to the book, Who were the Fascists, in 1980. Contributions came from scholars in every European country tries to answer the question whether fascism was a generic phenomenon produced by a deep crisis within Western civilisation or it could more properly be understood as a national response to specific problems arising out of and comprehensible only in the context of national historical trajectories.
Yannis re-entered journalism, first as London correspondent for Avghi and then for Eleftherotypia, another Athens daily. As a journalist he has reported from various trouble spots of the world and met a number of world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, James Callaghan, Jacques Shirac, Thabo Mbeki and many others. From 1989 to 1994, he also edited i-to-i, an alternative London publication, which attracted contributions from many renowned journalists and authors. In the meantime, he had three more books published in Athens on 20th century Greek and European history: Οι Ριζες του Ελληνικου Φασισμου (The Roots of Greek Fascism), Το Ευρωπαικο Αδιεξοδο (The European Deadlock), and Η Δημοκρατια του Μεσοπολεμου (The Greek Republic between the two World Wars).
His first book in English, The Cultural Challenge, published in the UK and the USA by Imprint Academic in 2008, is a trilogy: In Bed with Madness, The Greek Inheritance and The Future of the Past. In these books Yannis questions the values of the contemporary world and looks back into the golden age of Greece for inspiration.
His next book, History, Politics and Dreams, published in 2015, is a personal journey through history and politics pertaining to Yannis’ own experiences and also his generation’s dreams and doubts, illusions and disillusionment, hopes and despair. His novel The Lure of Illusions is a tragic love story set in modern war torn Syria, where global political meddling creates and inflames civil conflict and the innocent invariably suffer. His latest book, Skyros, Sunshine for the Soul, which he has co-written with Dina Glouberman, expands on the philosophy that underpins Skyros, ‘one of the world’s best holidays’. (Stephen Bleach, The Sunday Times, 10 January 2010)
In 2004, Yannis, together with his life-partner Christine Schulz moved from London to Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight, where in a stylish Georgian country house, The Grange, [5]they run weekend courses in writing, comedy, mindfulness, art, singing, yoga, photography and other areas. The Grange provides also B&B facilities. Since 2008 it houses the HQ of Skyros.
BOOKS
Who were the Fascists (Contributor) Bergen, Unversitetsforlaget, Norway 1980 This book to which contributions were made by scholars in every European country tries to answer the question whether fascism was a generic phenomenon produced by a deep crisis within Western civilisation or it could more properly be understood as a national response to specific problems arising out of and comprehensible only in the context of national historical trajectories. Yannis Andricopoulos is one of the contributors.
In Bed with Madness: Trying to make sense in a world that doesn't: 1 (Societas) 2008
The Greek Inheritance: Ancient Greek wisdom for the digital era: 2 (Societas) 2008
The Future of the Past: From the culture of profit to the culture of joy: 3 (Societas) 2008
The Cultural Challenge (Kindle) 2017
The Lure of Illusions: a tale of intrigue and tragedy in war-torn Syria (Arena Books) 2017
History, Politics and Dreams (Grosvenor House) 2015
Skyros, Sunshine for the Soul (Skyros Books), with Dina Glouberman 2018
References[edit]
- ↑ Y, Andricopoulos, History, Politics, and Dreams, Grosvenor House, 2015
- ↑ Y, Andricopoulos, History, Politics, and Dreams, Grosvenor House, 2015
- ↑ https://www.eurotopics.net/en/148412/avgi
- ↑ History, Politics, and Dreams(p45)
- ↑ https://www.thegrangebythesea.com/
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