Four’s Destiny: A Wartime Greek Tragedy by Michael Powell

Thanks to the author, I am giving away one print copy of ‘Four’s Destiny: A Wartime Greek Tragedy’ by Michael Powell.

Description Four’s Destiny: A Wartime Greek Tragedy by Michael Powell

The book traces the lives of four young men, Godfrey (English), Rolf (German), Marco (Italian) and Yiannis (Greek) – each born in 1920 – and their families. Marco and Yiannis come from the small island of Leros, then part of the Italian-ruled Dodecanese group. They all meet in 1936 at the Nuremburg Youth Rally when Godfrey visits Rolf on a student exchange and Marco is invited to visit his second cousin, Rolf, with his friend Yiannis.

When war breaks out, the four serve their countries in various fields of battle. In 1943, Italy changes to the Allied side and their lives come together again when Yiannis, now a sailor on the distinguished Greek destroyer, ‘Queen Olga’, transports British troops to Leros and meets Godfrey, now a member of the British Long Range Desert Group, and Marco, serving in the Italian army on Leros. Rolf, now stationed in Greece as a bomber pilot is fated to drop one of the bombs which sinks the Olga and, in the final act before his plane crashes, to strafe Marco’s anti-aircraft battery.

About Michael Powell

As a young man Michael was a Choral Exhibitioner at Christ Church Oxford and dreamed of becoming a full time opera singer.  Close to achieving this ambition he later sang professionally with a number of Opera companies and performed regularly as a baritone soloist. But making a living as a singer is hard so he also supplemented the family income as an IT consultant and IT work took more and more time from singing. However, once it dawned on him that tenors have more fun and get to kiss the girls, he had a second operatic career as tenor and during the 1990s and 2000s sang many tenor roles, including Don Alvaro in Verdi’s ‘Forza del Destino’.

His IT activities continued and he designed and wrote three quite successful software products – one of which (for analysing Operational Risk) is still in use. He also started writing, contributing regular articles to Computer Weekly, The Guardian and FT and writing two rather dull books on Contracting published by Reed Business Publishing (astonishingly still available though completely out of date!). He also wrote the libretto for an opera, called “Mister Butterfly”, which was composed by Ken Roberts and performed in Hong Kong in 2000.

In 1993 he met his lovely Swedish wife, Kerstin, who had been living in Greece for many years, running a charter yacht with her previous husband. She persuaded him, at a time when his fortunes had reached a nadir, to buy a boat. Though this seemed completely crazy at the time, it proved to be one of their best decisions ever. They have been lucky enough subsequently to visit every Greek island and now spend half their time in Greece, sailing on Tosca II, or in their house on Leros.

In the course of their travels, they came to the Dodecanese island of Leros. Michael became interested in the history of the island. It is riddled with tunnels, dug before and during the war as shelter from bombing. It has a myriad of interesting old buildings from the time of the Italian occupation and a British War Cemetery, the last resting place of many brave and distinguished soldiers who died futilely trying to stop the Germans taking over in 1943.

They were entranced by the people of Leros who he found to be some of the most friendly and outgoing Greek people. It was clear from the start that the islanders are eager to include foreigners and they were made to feel welcome immediately. After a lot of debating, and spending a winter in their boat in the excellent marina, in 2014, Michael and Kerstin found a house right on the cliffs overlooking the wild bay of Gourna. It was incomplete and needed some work. Kerstin happened upon a neighbour, Giorgos, who is a master builder. He, with Kerstin’s input and her ability to speak Greek, has finished the house beautifully as well as becoming a close friend. The Greek character in “Four’s Destiny” is based on his stories of his young life and he furnished some of the anecdotes about the Greek people’s relationships with the Italians. Over long evenings discussing with Giorgos, over a few ouzos, how life was on the island during the occupation by first the Turks, then the Italians, then the Germans and finally the Brits who handed them back to the Greeks – vivid memories told by an island man quoting stories from his ancestors – ‘Four’s Destiny’came to be written.

Website: http://www.foursdestiny.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/foursdestiny

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