«Χρυσή εποχή»

Το Anglo-Hellenic League οργανώνει σήμερα το βράδυ στις 7.00 μ.μ. στο Ελληνικό Κέντρο Λονδίνου (Hellenic Centre, Great Hall, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS) μια πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα διάλεξη, με θέμα: «A golden age? British and Greek writers and artists after the war»! 

Ομιλητής θα είναι ο διακεκριμένος Άγγλος επιστήμονας και διπλωμάτης, αλλά πάνω απ’ όλα αληθινός Φιλέλληνας, Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith. Το βιογραφικό του, που αποδεικνύει του λόγου το αληθές, έχει ως εξής: 

Michael Llewellyn-Smith was born in 1939 and brought up in England, with two sisters and two brothers, at a school in Berkshire where his father was headmaster. He was educated at Wellington College at Crowthorne, Berkshire, a public school founded in memory of the Great Duke of Wellington, and at New College, Oxford University, where he studied classics, ancient history and philosophy. He went on to obtain a DPhil at St Antony's College Oxford, for his doctoral thesis on the Greek occupation of Smyrna and western Asia Minor in 1919-22.  

He is the author of four books with themes in Greek history and culture. The Great Island is a book about the history, culture and folklore of the island of Crete, reflecting his travels and researches there in the early 1960s (travels with a donkey!). Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor 1919-1922 is the story of Greece's ill-fated venture into Asia Minor, ending with the destruction of Smyrna and the end of the ancient Greek communities of Asia Minor. Olympics in Athens 1896: the Invention of the Modern Olympic Games is the story of how the young Greek state and the city of Athens developed rapidly to a point at which they found it possible to host successfully the first modern Games. Athens: a Cultural and Literary History presents the life and culture of the city of Athens across the centuries, explaining how the modern city copes with its ancient heritage.  

Michael Llewellyn-Smith has also written a short book about the history of the British Embassy at Athens, which was the house of the Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos before it became the British Embassy in 1936. He is currently researching the life of Venizelos. He has lectured extensively at Universities and for Swan Hellenic Discovery Cruising. He has written reviews for the Times Literary Supplement and the Anglo-Hellenic Review.  

Michael Llewellyn-Smith joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1970 and served in it for thirty years, in Moscow, Paris, Warsaw and Athens as well as London. He was British Ambassador in Poland from 1991-96 and in Greece from 1996-99. As student, teacher, diplomat and traveller he has spent more than eleven years in Greece.  

He is married, to Colette née Gaulier. They live in south Oxfordshire, and travel often to Greece and France. They have two children, Stefan and Sophie, and four grandchildren, David, Alexander, Nicolas and Alice. 

Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith was awarded the CMG in 1990 and the KCVO in 1996. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Antony's College Oxford, a Vice President and member of the Council of the British School at Athens, member of the Council of the Anglo-Hellenic League, Vice President of the Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition, Honorary Fellow of the Eleftherios K Venizelos National Research Foundation, Chania, and Patron of the Friends of Mount Athos. He is a visiting Professor at King's College London and has been a visiting Fellow of the British School at Athens, visiting Fellow at Princeton University, foreign Fellow of the Onassis Foundation, and holder of the Venizelos chair of modern Greek studies at the American College of Greece (Deree College) for 2009-2010.