LAURENCE MACKINreviews Blue Skies & Black OlivesBy John and Christopher Humphrys,Hodder Stoughton, £18.99
John Humphrys is a reliable sort of chap. Decades working for the BBC and being the voice of calm reason on its flagship radio news show,
Today
, have given him a certain gravitas and reasoned authority, not to mention his fearsome reputation as a tenacious interviewer.
This, though, is a man who once spent a small fortune attempting to be a dairy farmer in Wales and bought half a cheese factory, before purchasing a derelict site stuck halfway up a cliff in Greece after inspecting it for a total of five minutes. Beneath the mask of professionalism is a raging torrent of grumpiness just waiting to be unleashed in terrific attacks of elegant sarcasm.
At least, this is what his son, Christopher, would have us believe. He is a professional cellist who has lived in Greece for more than 20 years. When John decided to buy a holiday home near Athens, he assumed, despite years of experience of failed building and business ventures, that it would be a breeze, with Christopher on hand to manage things.
What he did not factor in was Christopher’s hopeless optimism, labyrinthine Grecian bureaucracy and the tenacity of Greek builders when avoiding work that had been paid for in advance.
This is the pair’s account of their protracted odyssey to build John’s holiday home. It isn’t all tales of building woe, though, and there are plenty of accounts of terrific hikes in the Peloponnese, swims in the bay near Metamorfosi and trips to the ancient theatre near Epidavros. Familiar paths are trod in this neat two-hander – John the grumpy father, issuing impossible deadlines from London, Christopher the relaxed son, with an endless litany of “perfect” Greek builders who never finish the job – but it is carried along with wit and style.