In 1967 I returned to Greece and later tried to recall some of the atmosphere of that fateful year in a novel, Strange Alphabet. Unfortunately for Greeks democracy still seems a distant dream rather than a daily reality, but if is important to believe in that Byronic dream of freedom.

After the coup I visited Marathon - Marathon, where Lambrakis began his one-man march to Athens; Marathon, where many thousands of Peace Marchers gathered the year after his assassination... And I could not forget those words: 

"The mountains look on Marathon –
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream'd that Greece might still be free.” 

Nor, as a poet, could I let 1971 - the 150th anniversary of Greek Independence - pass without making some sort of gesture, however small, of solidarity with all the brave Greeks, men and women, young and old, left-wing and royalist, communist or conservative, who have suffered and are today suffering under the brutality of a cor­rupt and illegal military regime.  This collection of poems on Greek themes is dedicated to them, and proceeds will be donated to Greek Democratic organisations.