Everything you never realised you wanted to know about Greece or didn’t dare to ask.
After living in Greece for thirteen years, writer and reluctant olive farmer Rob Johnson has got used to most of the things that he and his partner Penny found so bizarre at the beginning. Most, but not all.
A Kilo of String is the story-so-far of this not-particularly-plucky couple’s often bewildering experiences among the descendants of Sophocles, Plato and Nana Mouskouri with occasional digressions into total irrelevances.
This is a book which is almost guaranteed not to change your life, but what it will do is answer many of the fundamental questions about life in Greece, such as:
How do you avoid ordering a double tomato for your pine marten when booking a hotel room?
Should olive harvesting be registered with the Dangerous Sports Association?
Why are chicken livers useful (other than to the chickens themselves)?
Why is it a good idea to wear your underwear inside-out?
Why is playing the bassoon bad for your health?
Oh yes, and there are some serious bits too about how life in Greece has changed since the beginning of the economic crisis.
A Kilo of String is loosely based on Rob Johnson’s podcast series of the same name, which is free to listen to and download at https://rob-johnson.org.uk/podcasts/a-kilo-of-string/.