Greek Royal Family


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http://http://trondni.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/new-books-greek-kings-and-british.html?m=1

A warning to anyone planning on reading or buying Panagiotis Dimitrakis' "Greece and the English: British Diplomacy and the Kings of Greece" IB Taurus 2009....

Do not waste your time or money on this book unless you really need to!

The above book is worse than what Trond says in his review. The research is actually really poor - very little research in Greece and nothing really new in terms of UK source material, with many important secondary sources missing from the bibliography, and no interviews.

Greece and the English also has little in the way of new thinking. It's just a rehash of the old arguments about the monarchy from the 1960s with very little attempt at analysis or gaining a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Dimitrakis really does not understand royalty and is actually really patronising and nasty in tone. I don't mind critical work, in fact I welcome it, as long as it's done well and takes its subject matter seriously and understand their worldview, than such an approach is laudable. Dimitrakis for some reason, hasn't been capable of this and the end result was highly disappointing.

There are also a number of typos and other errors - English is not the authors first language and it shows. For something from a publishing house like IB Taurus, I would expect much better, with much stronger editorial supervision.
 
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http://http://trondni.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/new-books-greek-kings-and-british.html?m=1

A warning to anyone planning on reading or buying Panagiotis Dimitrakis' "Greece and the English: British Diplomacy and the Kings of Greece" IB Taurus 2009....

Do not waste your time or money on this book unless you really need to!

The above book is worse than what Trond says in his review. The research is actually really poor - very little research in Greece and nothing really new in terms of UK source material, with many important secondary sources missing from the bibliography, and no interviews.

Greece and the English also has little in the way of new thinking. It's just a rehash of the old arguments about the monarchy from the 1960s with very little attempt at analysis or gaining a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Dimitrakis really does not understand royalty and is actually really patronising and nasty in tone. I don't mind critical work, in fact I welcome it, as long as it's done well and takes its subject matter seriously and understand their worldview, than such an approach is laudable. Dimitrakis for some reason, hasn't been capable of this and the end result was highly disappointing.

There are also a number of typos and other errors - English is not the authors first language and it shows. For something from a publishing house like IB Taurus, I would expect much better, with much stronger editorial supervision.

What a terrible shame. I'm sure there are many nuggets of pure gold left to discover about this relationship, from the 19th century and the manoeuvres to place the future King George I on the Greek throne onwards. Not to mention the machinations during World Wars I and II.
 
I'm glad I only got the google play version which was $10 NZ - a physical copy would be over $100 and I'm too cheep for interlibrary loans. I would give a cautious recommendation to Stan Draenos bio of Andreas Papandreou - good on context and research if used carefully - it's an official bio written with the supervision of the family and is vol 1 in a projected multi volume bio (also it's I B Taurus again)
 
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Wow, fascinating snippets. I love it! So, has Constantine found an English language publisher, or are these translations and illustrations of what has already been published in Greece?
 
Wow, fascinating snippets. I love it! So, has Constantine found an English language publisher, or are these translations and illustrations of what has already been published in Greece?

Im not sure. Stef told me back on the "KC and the Colonels" thread that a publisher has been found and an english edition may be coming out in November (most likely mid 2017 for this part of the world). Im not sure if this is the case or not; Stef is pretty reliable about these things but anything could happen. :flowers:
 
Thanks Laurels, hopefully the info is correct. If I can afford it I will buy it! A pre Xmas gift for me perhaps!
 
"Monarchy in Modern Greece"by Mr.Costas Stamatopoulos

:kingdomofgreece:

First printed in Greek and French and now,finally,in english.

This gem of a book tells,for the first time in english,the story of the Greek Monarchy.
The author is the charming and knowledgeable Mr. Costas Stamatopoulos.
Wellwrought and researched and sooo worth the read!!
Order at dearest van Hoogstraten,The Hague only.

Efgaristo poli!
 
"Monarchy in Modern Greece"by Mr.Costas Stamatopoulos
This gem of a book tells,for the first time in english,the story of the Greek Monarchy.
Agree totally with Lucien. A thoughtful reading of this book greatly softened my harsh opinion of Queen Frederike most of all. At the same time it bolstered my long-held impression that, thanks to the dysfunctional Greek political class and Greece’s blatantly self-serving “allies,” the Greek monarchy never really stood much of a chance of surviving the 20th century.
 
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