Dedicated to promoting Anglo-Greek understanding and friendship, through charitable and cultural work.
Calendar of Events 2023
Thurs. 16 February, 8.30am Private tour of Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth at the British Library London, led by Dr Peter Toth.
Tues. 7 March, 7pm Dr Iain Gordon Brown FSA FRSE, “Edinburgh as the Athens of the North”. Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, London.
Wed. 3 May, 7pm Julian Hoffman, “Prespa, a Crossroads Place: On the natural and human communities of the transboundary lakes region”. Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, London.
Fri. 2 June, 7pm Konstantinos Alsinos, Η πληγή του κόσμου (The Wound of the World) (Athens: Mikri Arktos, 2022). Readings in Greek; discussion in English. Lecture Theatre 2, Bush House, King’s College London, 30 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BG.
In partnership with the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's
College London. Booking info available here.
Mon. 12 June, 6pm “Yannis Ritsos: new English translations and visualisations”, including a tribute to Edmund Keeley. David Harsent, A Broken Man in Flower: Versions of Yannis Ritsos, intro. John Kittmer (Hexham: Bloodaxe 2023) and Yannis Ritsos, Monochords, trans. Paul Merchant; linocut illustrations by Chiara Ambrosio (London: Prototype 2023). Readings, illustrations and panel discussion. Council Room, King’s College London (Strand).
In partnership with the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's
College London Booking info available here.
Tues. 13 June, 6pm Katie Lentakis Award Ceremony. Council Room, King's
College London.
In Conversation with Prof. Kevin Featherstone.
In partnership with the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's
College London Booking info available here.
Mon. 19 June, 5pm Annual General Meeting. River Room, King’s College
London. Members only.
Mon. 19 June, 7pm Runciman Award Ceremony. Great Hall, King’s College London + Zoom Webinar
Guest speaker & keynote address: Prof. Dame Mary Beard
In partnership with the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's
College London
September (tbc) Annual league event in Greece
November (tbc) Panel on the Lausanne Treaty and the Exchange of Populations.
Wed. 6 December, 6pm Victoria Solomonidis-Hunter, “Marie Spartali-Stillman: A 'Grace' in her own right”. Zoom webinar.
We are grateful to the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A.G. Leventis Foundation for their generous support in sponsoring our events.
Council of the League
26 January 2023 (updated 6 February)
Julian Hoffman
Prespa, a Crossroads Place: On the natural and human communities of the transboundary lakes region
Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, 16/18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Wednesday, 3 May 2023, 7pm
In front of a large audience, the environmentalist and author, Julian Hoffman, spoke passionately about the Prespa Lakes. Julian’s illustrated talk focused on the lakes’ ecological significance and on environmental issues, the work of ecologists and the local community in protecting that abundance, and the transboundary complexity of the region. Extensive Q&A followed.
Council of the League
12 May 2023
Dr Iain Gordon Brown FSA FRSE
‘Edinburgh as the Athens of the North’
Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, 16/18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Tuesday, 7 March 2023, 7pm
In the years between about 1810 and 1850, Edinburgh – long and affectionately known as ‘Auld Reekie’ – came to think of itself and to be widely regarded as something else. The city became ‘Modern Athens’, or subsequently ‘the Athens of the North’. This phrase is well-known, but tends to disguise the often confused and contradictory messages hidden within the convenience of a trite term. In front of a large audience at the Hellenic Centre, Dr Iain Gordon Brown gave a richly illustrated lecture, about the concept and reality of Edinburgh as the Athens of the North.
Council of the League
3 April 2023
Private Tour of
‘Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth’
led by Dr Peter Toth (curator)
The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB
Thursday, 16 February 2023, 8.30am
On 16 February, a party of members and supporters of the League was given a tour of the British Library's exibition on Alexander the Great. The tour was led by Dr Peter Toth (Curator of Ancient and Mediaeval Manuscripts) and took place before the exhibition opened that day to the public and to ticket-holders. Dr Toth gave us a fascinating and lively tour of the exhibition, which was appreciated by all.
The exhibition itself closed on Sunday 19 February.
Council of the League
28 February 2023
JUDGES ANNOUNCE THE LONG LIST FOR THE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2023
PRESS NOTICE
The judging panel for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award, given annually for a book about Greece, has agreed a long list of 24 books for the competition in 2023.
Out of 47 books submitted for the Award, the judges selected 24 to form their long list. The list, which covers books published globally in English in 2022, includes books on history, biography, literature and philosophy, plus novels, poetry and literary translation. The books selected span Hellenic experience from antiquity until today.
The full long list of 24 titles is attached.
The Award Ceremony for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2023 is scheduled to be held in the Great Hall of King’s College London on Monday 19 June 2023, at 7pm. Details of the award ceremony and of the short list will be announced in due course.
The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award is sponsored by the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A.G. Leventis Foundation. The value of the prize to the winner is £10,000.
Council of the League
10 January 2023
NOTES:
Since 1986, the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award has rewarded annually the best book published in the previous year in English about Greece or on a Greek subject. The Award is open to scholarly and creative books and to translations into English of Greek literary works.
The judges for the Award in 2023 are:
Prof. Peter Frankopan (chair)
Dr Vassiliki Kolocotroni
Prof. Judith Mossman
Dr Oliver Thomas
Dr Sofka Zinovieff
Keep up with our news on: www.runcimanaward.org and www.anglohellenicleague.org.
Enquiries to: John Kittmer (Award Administrator) runciman@anglohellenicleague.org
THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2023
LONG LIST
Title |
Author |
Press |
Period |
Genre |
RRP |
SCHOLARLY BOOKS
|
|||||
Nafplio: Biography of a Greek Town |
Matt Stanley |
Aetos Press |
Diachronic |
History |
£12.99 |
|
|||||
Looking for Theophrastus: Travels in Search of a Lost Philosopher |
Laura Beatty |
Atlantic Books |
Antiquity |
History of Philosophy |
£16.99 |
The Greek Myths that Shape the Way We Think |
Richard Buxton |
Thames & Hudson |
Antiquity |
Mythology / Literature |
£20 |
Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity |
Sarah F. Derbew |
CUP |
Antiquity |
Literature / Art History / Anthropology |
£29.99 |
Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature: Criticism, Imitation, Reception |
N. Bryant Kirkland |
OUP |
Antiquity |
History |
£64 |
The Folds of Olympus: Mountains in Ancient Greek and Roman Culture |
Jason König |
Princeton UP |
Antiquity |
Cultural History |
£35 |
A New History of Greek Mathematics |
Reviel Netz |
CUP |
Antiquity |
History of Ideas |
£34.99 |
The Classical Parthenon: Recovering the Strangeness of the Ancient World |
William St Clair |
Open Book Publishers |
Antiquity |
History / Art History |
£40.30 / £25.95 |
The Lives of Ancient Villages: Rural Society in Roman Anatolia |
Peter Thonemann |
CUP |
Antiquity |
History / Ethnography |
£29.99 |
Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body |
Caroline Vout |
Profile |
Antiquity |
Art History |
£25 |
|
|||||
The Christian Invention of Time: Temporality and the Literature of Late Antiquity |
Simon Goldhill |
CUP |
Late Antiquity / Byzantium |
Literature / History / Cultural History / Religion |
£34.99 |
Symeon Stylites the Younger and Late Antique Antioch: From Hagiography to History |
Lucy Parker |
OUP |
Late Antiquity / Byzantium |
History / Religion |
£75 |
New Rome: The Roman Empire in the East, AD 395 - 700 |
Paul Stephenson |
Profile |
Late Antiquity / Byzantium |
History |
£30 |
|
|||||
Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars |
Daisy Dunn |
W&N |
Modern |
Literature / Biography / History of Scholarship |
£20 |
The Improbable Heroine: Lela Karayanni and the British Secret Services in World War II Greece |
Stylianos Perrakis |
De Gruyter |
Modern |
Biography |
£90 |
Who Saved the Parthenon? A New History of the Acropolis Before, During and After the Greek Revolution |
William St Clair |
Open Books Publishers |
Modern |
History |
£50.95 / £40.95 |
CREATIVE BOOKS / TRANSLATIONS
|
|||||
Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story |
Natalie Haynes |
Pan Macmillan / Mantle |
Antiquity |
Fiction |
£18.99 |
Lion |
Conn Iggulden |
Penguin |
Antiquity |
Fiction |
£20 |
A Little Brown Sea |
Charles Foster |
Fair Acre |
Modern |
Fiction |
£18.99 / £9.99 |
Fear of Light |
Julietta Harvey |
Starhaven |
Modern |
Fiction |
£12.50 |
|
|||||
This Afterlife: Selected Poems |
A.E. Stallings |
Carcanet |
Diachronic |
Poetry |
£25.19 / £15.99 |
Imperium |
Jay Gao |
Carcanet |
Antiquity |
Poetry |
£11.99 |
Heritage Aesthetics |
Anthony Anaxagorou |
Granta Books |
Modern |
Poetry |
£10.99 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Greek Folk Songs |
Translator:Joshua Barley |
Aiora Press |
Diachronic |
Translation |
£12.99 |
In Conversation with Prof. John Bennet (University of Sheffield)
Friends Room at the Hellenic Centre
16/18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Wednesday 23 November 2022, 7pm
Concluding the League’s programme of talks and events for 2022, John Kittmer, was in conversation with Prof. John Bennet. From October 2015 to September 2022, Prof. Bennet was Director of the British School at Athens. He has subsequently returned to his post as Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield at the end of his seven years in Greece. His research interests lie in early writing and administrative systems (especially Linear B), and the integration of material and textual data to understand societies and landscapes in the distant and more recent past.
This event took place in person only, without live broadcast or recording.
Council of the League
24 November 2022
Prof. Michael Wood (University of Manchester)
‘The Marvellous Journey of Theodore of Tarsus’
Friends Room at the Hellenic Centre,
16/18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Thursday, 29 September 2022, 7pm
Using fascinating manuscript evidence, Michael Wood told the story of Theodore of Tarsus (c.602-690AD) and his comrade Hadrian the African (630/7-710AD), who introduced Greek culture to England in the seventh century in ‘one of the most important educational programmes ever undertaken in Britain’.
Council of the League
10 October 2022
STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF HER LATE MAJESTY THE QUEEN
The Council of the League is profoundly moved and saddened by the death of Her Late Majesty The Queen. We grieve her loss and give thanks for her life. We join the whole nation in mourning for her. We know that this sentiment will be widely shared among our membership and, as Chair of Council, I have written, on behalf of the Council and our members, to His Majesty The King to express our sympathy and condolences to him and the Royal Family, and to convey our good wishes for his reign. Like his late mother, who travelled to Greece shortly before her own accession to the throne, the King knows Greece well and will, we may hope, want to maintain his associations with the Greek people amid his new responsibilities. I have also written to our Chief Patron HRH Prince Michael of Kent to express our condolences to him as a cousin of the Queen and member of the Royal Family. God Save The King.
John Kittmer
Chair of Council
on behalf of all the Council
11 September 2022
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award Ceremony 2022 & Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Lecture 2022
Roderick Beaton In Conversation:
The Greeks: A Global History
The Council Room, King’s College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS
Monday 27 June 2022, 6pm
We are pleased to announce, in partnership with the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College London, that the winner of the Katie Lentakis Award 2022 is Juliette Quatre for her dissertation 'An analysis of the theological and philosophical syncretism regarding the daimones' natures and operations in the Greek magical papyri'. Congratulations to Juliette and to the runners-up Charlotte Ellery and Mark Selby.
The annual Katie Lentakis Lecture took the form of a conversation between Prof. Roderick Beaton FBA FKC and Dr John Kittmer, Chair of the League, about Prof. Beaton’s latest book: The Greeks: A Global History.
Council of the League
11 July 2022
Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award Ceremony 2022
sponsored by the A. C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation & the A. G. Leventis Foundation
Keynote speech by Prof. Richard Hunter FBA
‘Those who do not know the sea’: Homer and the margins of the Greek world
Monday 13 June 2022, 7pm
Great Hall, King’s College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS
and online
Under the joint sponsorship of the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation, The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award Ceremony 2022 took place on 13 June, in the presence of the League's Chief Patron and President, HRH Prince Michael of Kent.
Since 1986, the Award has rewarded annually the best book or books published the previous year in English about some aspect of Greece. The Award this year went to Ian Collins for John Craxton: A Life of Gifts (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2021).
The keynote speech was given by Prof. Richard Hunter FBA on 'Those who do not kinow the sea: Homer and the margins of the Greek world'. Prof. Peter Frankopan reviewed the judging of this year's competition and announced the winner. Ian Collins gave his acceptance speech as winner and presented the winning book. Welcome addresses were given by Prof. Marion Thain and Dr John Kittmer; the concluding remarks were made by Prof. Gonda Van Steen.
Two recordings of the award ceremony are available below. The first is a theatre view and the second is the webinar view. Details of the event can be found here. The handout for Prof. Hunter's lecture and photos of the event are also available below.
All photos are © Katerina Kalogeraki.
Council of the League
15 June 2022
Monday 13 June 2022, 4.30pm
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
River Room, King's Building (second floor), King's College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS.
The Annual General Meeting for the year ending 31 December 2021 was held in the River Room at King’s College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS on Monday 13 June 2022 at 4.30pm.
A copy of the draft minutes of the meeting will be published shortly.
Council of the League
15 June 2022
Dr Christos Tsirogiannis (University of Aarhus, Denmark)
‘Stolen antiquities: Investigating known unknowns
in the international market’
Zoom Webinar
Monday, 9 May, 6pm (BST)
Since 1994, the discoveries and confiscations of photographic and documentary archives from notorious and convicted dealers of illicit antiquities have rocked the antiquities market and its clients, and laid the foundations for a new discipline within archaeology. Forensic archaeological research on these archives has offered for the first time concrete evidence of the existence and operation of an international trafficking network. Starting from the historical background, this talk proceeded to examine selected cases of illicit antiquities, presenting step by step all the relevant photographic and other evidence. Dr Tsirogiannis concluded by outlining the state of the field today, noting possibilities for further research, and offering a sense of what is to be expected in future from museums, auction houses, dealers’ galleries and private collectors.
Dr Christos Tsirogiannis is a forensic archaeologist specializing in the research of international trafficking networks of antiquities. He has a BA in Archaeology and History of Art from the University of Athens. Before coming to the UK for his PhD at the University of Cambridge, he worked as an archaeologist in Greece, and volunteered for four years with the Greek police art squad. He gained a postdoctoral position with the ERC-funded project, ‘Trafficking Culture’, at the University of Glasgow, and then became a Senior Field Archaeologist at the University of Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Tsirogiannis is currently an Associate Professor and Research Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
A video recording of the event is attached below.
Council of the League
10 May 2022
ANCIENT GREEKS: SCIENCE AND WISDOM
Science Museum:
Private Exhibition Viewing
Rescheduled to Friday 8 April 2022, 9am
On 8 April, members and supporters of the League enjoyed a private viewing of the Science Museum’s free exhibition Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom, which had opened on 17 November 2021. The viewing was led by Dr Jane Desborough, Curator of Scientific Instruments at the Science Museum and Lead Curator of the exhibition. The exhibition set out to reveal how this ancient civilization questioned, contemplated, and debated the natural world. Through the intellectual fusion of the arts, science and religion, ancient Greek thinkers sought to understand the world in a logical and mathematical way. From the stars in the night sky to the multitude of animals in the sea, visitor are invited to discover the significance of their insights through iconic sculptures, musical instruments and more. New knowledge about the ancient Greeks is on display through the latest scientific research and through objects and artworks steeped in history, brought together in the UK for the first time.
Council of the League
12 April 2022
JUDGES ANNOUNCE THE SHORT LIST FOR
THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2022
At its meeting on 7 April, the judging panel for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2022 agreed its short list for this year’s competition.
Out of the 23 books selected by the judges in January to form their long list, the panel has now picked eight books, published in 2021, as their short list for the final round of judging.
Peter Frankopan, chair of judges, said: “This has been an exceptionally rich and varied year for the Runciman Award. We have read some astonishingly ambitious books, some covering many thousands of years of history, others re-telling familiar tales in extraordinary new ways, and others still that have captured our hearts, minds and imaginations. The judges deliberated for a long time to select this short list, and we wished we could have honoured even more books this time. We are yet to discuss which of the eight books might win; but we are thrilled by the range and breadth of writers and scholars represented in our short list – taking us from the Siege of Troy through the Byzantine era right up to the present day.”
The Runciman Award is given by The Anglo-Hellenic League annually for the best book published for the first time in English in the previous year about Greece or on a Greek subject.
The eight short-listed titles are set out below, in alphabetical order (by author):
Author / Translator |
Title |
Press |
Period |
Genre |
RRP |
Nektaria Anastasiadou |
A Recipe for Daphne |
American University of Cairo Press |
Modern |
Fiction |
£10.99 |
Pat Barker |
The Women of Troy |
Penguin (Hamish Hamilton) |
Antiquity |
Fiction |
£18.99 |
Jeffrey Beneker & Craig Gibson (trans.) |
The Byzantine Sinbad (by Michael Andreopoulos) |
Harvard UP |
Byzantium |
Translation |
£31.95 |
Ian Collins |
John Craxton: A Life of Gifts |
Yale UP |
Modern |
Biography |
£25 |
Michael Llewellyn-Smith |
Venizelos: The Making of a Greek Statesman, 1864-1914 |
C Hurst & Co. |
Modern |
Biography |
£30 |
Mark Mazower |
The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe |
Penguin (Allen Lane) |
Modern |
History |
£30 |
Ruth Padel |
Daughters of the Labyrinth |
Little Brown |
Modern |
Fiction |
£18.99 |
Dimitris Tziovas
|
Greece from Junta to Crisis: Modernization, Transition and Diversity |
Bloomsbury (I.B. Tauris) |
Modern |
Cultural history |
£85 |
The judges for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2022 are:
Prof. Peter Frankopan (chair)
Dr Dionysis Kapsalis
Prof. Naoíse Mac Sweeney
Prof. Judith Mossman
Dr Sofka Zinovieff
The announcement of the winner and award ceremony will take place on Monday 13 June, at 7pm, in the Great Hall of King’s College London, on the Strand.
The award, which is worth £10,000, is sponsored by the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A.G. Leventis Foundation.
Council of the League
8 April 2022
An Evening of Anglo-Hellenic Friendship
Zoom Webinar
Thursday 10 March: participation by Zoom at 7.30pm (EET) / 5.30pm (GMT)
The event took place in front of a specially invited audience in Athens, under the patronage of the British Ambassador to Greece, H.E. Mr Matthew Lodge. A large audience watched online (see below for recording on YouTube).
The programme was as follows:
Welcome (7.30pm (EET), 5.30pm (GMT))
Dr John Kittmer, Chair of the Council of the League
Salutations
Keynote Address
* On being a British writer about Greece *
Prof. Roderick Beaton FBA
Recitals
* Poetry Reading *
Joshua Barley and Pavlina Marvin, reading Michalis Ganas
* Piano Recital *
Triptych - VIP World Premiere
The Balcony Scene - VIP World Premiere
The Dark Ballad - VIP World Premiere
Dimitris Skyllas
Our warm thanks and appreciation go to: The British Ambassador to Greece, H.E. Mr Matthew Lodge; The A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation; The A.G. Leventis Foundation; Akrathos Newlands Winery; our performers; Mrs Katerina Korompli & the staff of the British Residence for making this evening of friendship possible.
Notes on participants:
Roderick Beaton grew up in Edinburgh and studied English Literature at Cambridge, before specialising in Modern Greek studies. For thirty years until his retirement he held the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London, and is now Emeritus. Roderick is the author of several books of non-fiction, one novel, and several translations of fiction and poetry, all of them connected to Greece and the Greek-speaking world. He is a four-time winner of the Runciman Award, and his books have been shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Cundill History Prize. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of King’s College (FKC), and Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic. From 2019 to 2021 he served as a member of the Committee “GREECE 2021”, charged by the Greek government with overseeing events commemorating the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821, and from September to December 2021 as A.G. Leventis Visiting Professor in Greek at the University of Edinburgh. From February 2022 he is Chair of the British School at Athens for a four-year term. His latest book, The Greeks: A Global History, was published by Faber in the UK and by Basic Books in the USA in November 2021; a Greek translation will be published by Patakis in autumn 2022.
Joshua Barley’s translations of Michalis Ganas (with David Connolly) were published by Yale University Press as A Greek Ballad and shortlisted for the Runciman Award in 2021. In summer 2022, he is due to publish the first translations of modern Greek folk songs in over a century with Aiora Press.
Pavlina Marvin was born in Athens in 1987, but grew up in Hermoupolis, Syros. Her first book, Stories From All Around My World, was published by Kichli Publishing in 2017 and received the Yannis Varveris Prize from the Hellenic Authors Association. As a writer and performer, she has participated in a wide range of interdisciplinary art projects and festivals.
Between an intellectual creative and a pop persona, Dimitris Skyllas is one of the most dynamic composers of his generation internationally. His work is influenced by values such as traditional rituals, laments and religious music, while it contributes to the fields of theatre, contemporary dance, visual arts and currently cinema. He often appears as a soloist of his piano music, while many of his pieces are performed by world-class performers. After his UK debut at Westminster Abbey in 2016, he appeared at the V&A Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and the British Ceramics Biennale. In Greece, the Onassis Foundation invited him to perform his piano piece “Abyss” at the first public appearance of Maria Callas’ historical piano. In 2018 he composed the original score for the tragedy “Electra,” staged at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus by the National Theatre of Greece. With “Kyrie Eleison” (2020), co-commissioned by the BBC and Onassis Stegi, he becomes the first Greek composer to write for the BBC Symphonic Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. As a consequence of his career path, Skyllas' life and music will become a full-length documentary film, produced by the Onassis Foundation (2022). The composer has also contributed the original soundtrack of the film.
Thursday 10 February 2022, 6pm
Chris Thomas & Peter Desmond (FOMA)
‘Walking adventures on the Holy Mountain’
Zoom Webinar
- jointly with the Friends of Mount Athos -
Mount Athos, the home of Orthodox spirituality and monasticism, has been in existence for at least 1,200 years. Home to over 2,000 monks, in twenty glorious monasteries filled with treasures, the peninsula is a truly extraordinary place currently undergoing a resurgence, with a growing population of monks, a tangible and visible sense of purpose and an environment underpinned by spirituality, love and affection. In this richly illustrated talk, Chris Thomas and Peter Desmond spoke warmly and knowledgeably about pilgrimage on the Holy Mountain and about the twenty-year efforts of the Friends of Mount Athos to clear and maintain the paths for pilgrims and monks to use. A video of the talk is available on our YouTube channel (see below).
Council of the League
11 February 2022
JUDGES ANNOUNCE LONG LIST
FOR
THE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2022
PRESS NOTICE
The judging panel for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award, given annually for a book about Greece, has agreed a long list of 23 books for the competition in 2022.
Out of 62 books submitted for the Award, the judges selected 23 to form their long list. The list, which covers books published globally in English in 2021, includes books on history, archaeology, reception of antiquity, biography, literature, philosophy and myth, plus novels, travel-writing and literary translations. The books selected span the Greek experience from antiquity to the contemporary world.
Peter Frankopan, chair of judges, said:
It is great to see such a strong and exciting set of submissions for this year’s award. There are some heavyweight names on this longlist whose works have captured the imagination, and also a few dark horses in contention. As a panel, we were also extremely pleased by the range of entries – hard to predict what genre, let alone which topic, period or author will be crowned in the summer. But what an exciting few months we have ahead of us, to read some spectacular books. I’m greatly looking forward to it.
The full long list of 23 titles is tabulated below.
The Award Ceremony for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2022 is scheduled to be held in London on Monday 13 June 2022, at 7pm. Details of the award ceremony and of the short list will be announced in due course.
The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award is sponsored by the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A.G. Leventis Foundation. The value of the prize to the winner is £10,000.
Council of the League
5 January 2022
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
Since 1986, the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award has been run annually by The Anglo-Hellenic League to reward the best book published in the previous year in English about Greece or on a Greek subject. The Award is open to scholarly and creative books and to translations into English of Greek literary works.
The judges for the Award in 2022 are:
Prof. Peter Frankopan (chair)
Dr Dionysis Kapsalis
Prof. Naoíse Mac Sweeney
Prof. Judith Mossman
Dr Sofka Zinovieff
LONG LIST
Title |
Author |
Press |
Period |
Genre |
RRP |
SCHOLARLY BOOKS
|
|||||
Athens: City of Wisdom |
Bruce Clark |
Head of Zeus |
Antiquity - Byzantium - Modern |
History |
£25 |
The Greeks: A Global History |
Roderick Beaton |
Faber |
Antiquity - Byzantium - Modern |
History |
£25 |
In Search of the Argonauts: The Remarkable History of Jason and the Golden Fleece |
Helen Lovatt |
Bloomsbury (Academic) |
Antiquity |
Literature / Mythology |
£70 / £22.99 |
The Philosophical Stage: Drama and Dialectic in Classical Athens |
Joshua Billings |
Princeton UP |
Antiquity |
Literature / Drama / Philosophy |
£34 |
Olympia: A Cultural History |
Judith M. Barringer |
Princeton UP |
Antiquity |
Archaeology / History |
£28 |
The Sacred Band |
James Romm |
Scribner |
Antiquity |
History |
£20 |
The Virgin Mary in Byzantium, c.400-1000: Hymns, Homilies and Hagiography
|
Mary Cunningham |
CUP |
Byzantium |
Literature / Religion |
£75 |
Tony Harrison: Poet of Radical Classicism |
Edith Hall |
Bloomsbury (Academic) |
Modern / Antiquity |
Literature / Reception |
£75 |
Imagining Ithaca: Nostos and Nostalgia since the Great War |
Kathleen Riley |
OUP |
Modern / Antiquity |
Literature / Reception |
£30 |
Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought |
Tae-Yeoun Keum |
Harvard UP |
Modern / Antiquity |
Philosophy / Reception |
£31.95 |
Ripped at the Root: An Adoption Story |
Mary Cardaras |
Spuyten Duyvil |
Modern |
Biography |
£18 |
Venizelos: The Making of a Greek Statesman, 1864-1914 |
Michael Llewellyn-Smith |
C Hurst & Co. |
Modern |
Biography |
£30 |
Greece from Junta to Crisis: Modernization, Transition and Diversity |
Dimitris Tziovas |
Bloomsbury (I.B. Tauris) |
Modern |
Cultural history |
£85 |
John Craxton: A Life of Gifts |
Ian Collins |
Yale UP |
Modern |
Biography |
£25 |
The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe |
Mark Mazower |
Penguin (Allen Lane) |
Modern |
History |
£30 |
CREATIVE BOOKS
|
|||||
A Thing of Beauty: Travels in Mythical and Modern Greece |
Peter Fiennes |
Oneworld |
Modern / Antiquity |
Travel writing |
£18.99 |
Greek Myths |
Charlotte Higgins |
Penguin (Jonathan Cape) |
Antiquity |
Fiction |
£20 |
The Women of Troy |
Pat Barker |
Penguin (Hamish Hamilton) |
Antiquity |
Fiction |
£18.99 |
A Recipe for Daphne |
Nektaria Anastasiadou |
American University of Cairo Press |
Modern |
Fiction |
£10.99 |
Daughters of the Labyrinth |
Ruth Padel |
Little Brown |
Modern |
Fiction |
£18.99 |
Sea, Salt and Honey |
Chloe, Olivia, Nicholas Tsakiris |
Harper Collins |
Modern |
Food writing |
£25 |
TRANSLATED WORKS
|
|||||
H of H Playbook (by Euripides) |
Tr. Anne Carson |
Penguin (Jonathan Cape) |
Antiquity |
Translation |
£20 |
The Byzantine Sinbad (by Michael Andreopoulos) |
Translators: Jeffrey Beneker & Craig Gibson |
Harvard UP |
Byzantium |
Translation |
£31.95 |
Tuesday 9 November 2021, 6pm
Panel Discussion
Battling against Fake news in Britain and Greece: Can the mainstream media win?
By Webinar
Jointly between the League and the Hellenic Observatory, LSE
The challenge of ‘fake’ news, whether from social media or in more mainstream news sources, is a cause for concern in Britain and Greece, as well as internationally. It feeds on declining levels of trust in politics, the disparaging of expertise, and populist revolts – which provide scope for seemingly fanciful news stories. How can responsible mainstream media respond effectively to the spread of fake news? Is it a battle that can only be won by deeper socio-economic shifts occurring? Here we compare the cases of Britain and Greece and look for the wider lessons to be learnt.
On 9 November, the speakers on our panel (see below) discussed the challenge of fake news, in a lively webinar with a global audience. A video of the event is available on the LSE's YouTube channel (see below).
The event was chaired by Kevin Featherstone, member of Council, and moderated by John Kittmer, chair of Council.
Our panel consisted of:
Tony Barber: European Comment Editor at the Financial Times in London.
Nikos Konstandaras: columnist for the newspaper Kathimerini and a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times International.
David Patrikarakos: an internationally-acclaimed author and analyst. He has written for every major publication in the United States, Britain and Israel.
Eleni Varvitsioti: Greece and Cyprus correspondent for The Financial Times.
Council of the League
10 November 2021
Thursday 21 October 2021, 7pm
Prof. Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith in Conversation
Hellenic Centre (Friends Room), 16/18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Prof. Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith was in conversation with Prof. Robert Holland about the recently published first volume of Sir Michael’s two-volume biography of the statesman, Eleftherios Venizelos. In Venizelos: The Making of a Greek Statesman, 1864-1914 (London: C Hurst & Co, 2021), Prof. Llewellyn-Smith traces Venizelos’s early years, his political apprenticeship in Crete, and his energetic role in that island's emancipation from both Ottoman rule and the arbitrary rule of Prince George of Greece. Summoned to Athens in 1910 by a cabal of officers, Venizelos mastered the Greek political scene, sent the military back to barracks, and led the country through a glorious period of constitutional and political reform, ending in a Balkan alliance waging successful war against Ottoman rule in Europe. By 1914, Greece had doubled in territory and population, and was about to face the challenges of European war. Tensions were rising between the king and the prime minister, foreshadowing political schism. This book illuminates Venizelos' political mastery, Liberalism and nationalism, and traces his fateful friendship with David Lloyd George.
Council of the League
22 October 2021
Wednesday 13 October 2021, 7.30pm
Lance Foyster MW
A Taste of Greek Wines
Hellenic Centre (Friends & Members Room), 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The tasting was led by Lance Foyster MW, an experienced wine importer and a lifelong lover of Greece. He gained a degree in Classics at Oxford University before qualifying as a Master of Wine. Alongside his wife Isabelle Clark, Lance is co-founder and co-owner of Clark Foyster Wines Ltd., a specialist importer based in West London.
The audience tasted eight wines, all from indigenous Greek varietals, covering red, dry white and sweet styles, and learned of the ‘work in progress’ that is making Greece such a dynamic and increasingly fashionable wine producing country.
Council of the League
14 October 2021
Council of the League elects a new Vice-Chair
At their quarterly meeting in Council yesterday, the Trustees of the League elected Roula Konzotis to be their new Vice-Chair in succession to Frances Manthos, who has stepped down from that role (she will remain a member of Council). Roula is a long-standing member of the League, with a career background in arts administration, and has been a member of Council for over two years.
The Council thanked Frances warmly for her hard work and strong support, and welcomed Roula to her new duties.
Council of the League
5 October 2021
Thursday 30 September 2021, 7pm
Kate Smith CMG in Conversation
Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Kate Smith, former British Ambassador to Greece (Jan 2017-July 2021), was in conversation with Prof. Kevin Featherstone, member of the Council of the League, about the state of British-Greek relations, her experiences as ambassador in Athens, and prospects for future developments between Greece and the UK. A large, engaged audience, including HE The Greek Ambassador to the UK, Mr Ioannis Raptakis, listened with great attention and posed stimulating questions.
Council of the League
2 October 2021
Thursday 16 September 2021, 7pm
Dr Marios Psaras
‘The Weird Wave of Greek Cinema: a Movement or a Moment?’
Hellenic Centre (Friends & Members Room), 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
In this talk to a lively audience, Dr Psaras revisited landmark films that constituted the original ‘weird corpus’, such as Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth (2009) and Alps (2011), Panos Koutras’s Strella (2009) and Athina-Rachel Tsangaris’s Attenberg (2010), reflecting on reading the “weird” as “queer” and identifying the thematic and formal disenchantment with traditional heteropatriarchal values and the representation that guided the national imaginary and experience. He then turned to later works, such as Tonia Mishialis’ Pause (2018), to evaluate the after-effects of the original wave.
Dr Marios Psaras holds a Degree in Education & Philosophy (University of Cyprus), an MA and a PhD in Film Studies (Queen Mary University of London). He is the author of the first book-length study on contemporary Greek cinema, The Queer Greek Weird Wave: Ethics, Politics and the Crisis of Meaning (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). As a film scholar, Dr Psaras has taught film theory at Queen Mary, King’s College London, University of Greenwich, and has lectured across Europe. He has published articles, reviews and book chapters on contemporary Greek, European and global queer cinema. Since September 2018, he has been the Cultural Counsellor at the Cyprus High Commission in London.
Council of the League
20 September 2021
Monday 21 June 2021, 7pm
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award Ceremony 2021 & Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Lecture 2021
Ruth Padel
‘Jane Harrison, Neuro-Anatomy, and
What Was it Like to Live with Greek Gods?’
Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
This year's Katie Lentakis Award was presented to Hermione Dowling for her dissertation: 'Classical fans: how does the treatment of mythological characters and narrative in Euripides' Helen and Hecuba compare to modern fan-fiction authors' treatment of original characters and narrative from the BBC's Merlin?'. Congratulations to Hermione and to the two runners-up, Isabella Riglia and Eleanor Sheppard.
The annual Katie Lentakis lecture was given by Ruth Padel, poet, novelist and classicist. In her talk, Prof. Padel brought together various strands of her work on Greek religion, Darwin and science, starting with her debt to Jane Harrison, the first woman to have an international profile as a classics scholar.
The event took place, under socially distanced conditions, at the Hellenic Centre.
Council of the League
23 June 2021
Monday 21 June 2021, 5pm
Annual General Meeting of the League
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The Annual General Meeting for the year ending 31 December 2020 took place at the Hellenic Centre at the above date and time. A draft minute of proceedings will be posted shortly.
RODERICK BEATON WINS THE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2021
WITH GREECE: BIOGRAPHY OF A MODERN NATION
PRESS NOTICE
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2021 is Roderick Beaton for Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (London: Allen Lane 2019). In winning the Runciman Award for a fourth time, Prof. Beaton has set a new record of achievement.
Announcing the result of this year’s competition, Prof. Peter Frankopan, the chair of judges, said:
‘We were lucky enough to read some breath-takingly good books this year – including many that are both brave and ambitious, including re-tellings of stories that are well-known and investigations of real originality about topics rarely, if ever, looked at. Roddy Beaton’s book is a combination of all these qualities. It is not easy to write broad history for wide readership, and to do so well takes real skill. Covering recent centuries of Greece’s history requires courage too, as many have strong opinions about what should be written about – and how. What makes Beaton’s book stand out above all, however, is that just as Sir Steven Runciman’s books opened doors through which new generations of readers and scholars have since walked, so too will Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation. As a jury, we felt that this wonderful book captured the spirit of the Runciman Award perfectly.’
John Kittmer, chair of the Council of The Anglo-Hellenic League, said:
‘On behalf of the League I warmly congratulate Roddy Beaton for winning this year’s Runciman Award. In its 35-year history Roddy is the only person to have won the award four times: a tremendous achievement. In relaunching the award under new sponsors in this year of the bicentenary of the Greek revolution, we are delighted that the judges have chosen to acknowledge the timely relevance of this great book.’
The announcement of the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2021 was made on Thursday 17 June, 7pm at an event held (because of Covid-19 restrictions) by Zoom webinar. Prof. Stathis Kalyvas (University of Oxford) gave the keynote address on ‘Why the Greek Revolution still matters today’. Peter Frankopan surveyed the field of longlisted and shortlisted books on behalf of the panel of judges. The event closed with an acceptance speech by the winner.
The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award is sponsored by the A. C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award was conceived in 1983, as an initiative of Earl Jellicoe, the then chairman of the League, in honour of Sir Steven Runciman, the distinguished historian of Byzantium and longest-serving chairman of the League (1951-1967). It was first awarded in 1986 and has been awarded most years since then.
2. The award is given to the best book (or books) written in English in the previous year on a Greek subject. It aims to stimulate interest in Greek history and culture from earliest times to the present; to reward and encourage good and accessible writing, of which Sir Steven’s works are an example; and to promote a wider knowledge and understanding of Greece’s contribution to civilisation and values. The prize may be awarded for a work in the field of history, literary studies, biography, travel and topography, the arts, architecture, archaeology, the environment, social and political sciences or current affairs; or for a work of fiction, poetry or drama. Translations from Greek literature into English are also eligible.
3. No award was made in 2020. Books published in 2019 and 2020 were eligible for the award in 2021.
4. The panel of judges for the award in 2021 comprises: Peter Frankopan (chair), Dionysis Kapsalis, Naoise Mac Sweeney, Judith Mossman and Sofka Zinovieff. The judges announced their long list of 21 titles on 14 January and their short list of 7 titles on 9 April (see www.runcimanaward.org).
5. Roderick Beaton previously won the award in 1995 for An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature (Oxford: OUP 1994); in 2004 for George Seferis: Waiting for the Angel – A Biography (New Haven: Yale UP 2003); and in 2014 for Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (Cambridge: CUP 2013).
6. Enquiries about the Runciman Award can be made to the acting award administrator (Dr John Kittmer) at runciman@anglohellenicleague.org. Information about the two sponsoring foundations can be found at: https://www.aclcf.org/about-en/the-foundation/ and http://www.leventisfoundation.org/en/. The announcement to publishers for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2022 will be made in late October 2021.
Council of the League
17 June 2021
The Anglo-Hellenic League
Runciman Award Ceremony 2021
sponsored by the A. C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation & the A. G. Leventis Foundation
Keynote speech by Prof. Stathis Kalyvas
Zoom Webinar
Thursday 17 June 2021, 7pm
At a meeting held (because of the pandemic) by Zoom webinar, The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award was relaunched, under the joint sponsorship of the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.
The keynote speech at the award ceremony was given by Prof. Stathis Kalyvas (University of Oxford) on: “Why the Greek Revolution of 1821 still matters”.
The chair of judges, Prof. Peter Frankopan, talked about this year’s competition and introduced the books in the short list. He then announced the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2021:
Roderick Beaton: Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (London: Allen Lane 2019)
Professor Beaton gave an acceptance address and spoke about his winning book.
The event was hosted by John Kittmer, chair of the Council of the League. Copies of his introductory remarks and the press notice are attached. A recording of all the event (except the chair's introductory remarks) is available below.
Council of the League
18 June 2021
TWO NEW SPONSORS GUARANTEE THE FUTURE OF
THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD
PRESS NOTICE
The Council of The Anglo-Hellenic League is delighted to announce our two new co-sponsors of the Runciman Award: the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.
The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award has been given most years since 1986 for the best new book published in English in the previous year on a Greek topic. The award honours the memory of the Byzantine scholar and philhellene, Sir Steven Runciman.
Under the new agreement, the two co-sponsors will contribute equally to the funding of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award for the next five years, beginning in 2021. The total value of the sponsorship agreement to the League is £80,000.
The value of the annual prizemoney for the Runciman Award is set at £10,000.
The judging of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2021 is underway. The judges, chaired this year by Prof. Peter Frankopan, released their long list in January and published their short list on 9 April. The winner will be announced at a ceremony to take place by Zoom webinar on 17 June, at 7pm. Registration for the event will open on 19 May.
John Kittmer, Chair of the Council of The Anglo-Hellenic League, said:
‘In this year, when we are celebrating the bicentenary of Greek independence, it is wonderful to relaunch this prestigious award, which recognises the best writing in English about Greece and is a hugely important example of international philhellenism. All of us at the League are thrilled that the A. C. Laskaridis and A. G. Leventis foundations have stepped forward to guarantee the future of the Runciman Award. We look forward to working with them in the years ahead.’
Evi Lazou, President of the A. C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation, said:
‘We are very happy and honoured to commence the support of the prestigious Runciman Award on the bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence. As keeping Greek heritage alive is an intrinsic part of the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation’s mission, we cherish the partnership with an established institution that highlights the spirit, history, art and society of Greece.’
A spokesperson for the A. G. Leventis Foundation said:
‘The A. G. Leventis Foundation is delighted to support the Runciman Award, the longest established prize of its type in the UK. Over the years, this prestigious award has recognised and celebrated the influence of the Greek world in its broadest terms on European culture. It rewards both scholarship and creativity, but emphasises the importance of accessible writing in stimulating cultural and intellectual contact between Briton and Greek.’
Council of the League
17 May 2021
SEVEN MAGNIFICENT BOOKS TO CELEBRATE THE GREEK BICENTENARY
JUDGES ANNOUNCE THE SHORT LIST FOR
THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2021
‘AMBITION, INVENTIVENESS AND REAL ORIGINALITY’
At its meeting on 7 April, the judging panel for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2021 agreed its short list for the competition.
Out of the 21 wonderful books selected by the judges in January to form their long list, the panel has now chosen seven books, published in 2019 or 2020, to go forward as the short list for the final round of judging.
Peter Frankopan, Chair of judges, said: ‘This was a year of extraordinary depth and variety, covering Greek history, literature and culture from deep antiquity right up to the present day. Inevitably, choosing a short-list from such a strong selection was not easy. However, I am delighted we have chosen a set of books that show ambition, inventiveness and real originality – ranging from re-telling the siege of Troy to the interpretation of the Moon, from Venus and Aphrodite to Greece during the 19th and 20th centuries, from the Byzantine Emperor Theodore Laskaris to modern Greek poetry. We will need plenty of coffee (and perhaps something stronger) to select a winner from these masterpieces – each of which deserves to find many eager readers of all ages and each of which will appeal to specialists and the general reader alike.’
The Runciman Award has been run by The Anglo-Hellenic League since 1986, to reward the best book published recently about Greece or on a Greek subject in English. The competition was not run in 2020. In 2021, the League has found new sponsors for the Award and will be relaunching the book prize at an Award Ceremony when Covid restrictions are lifted in London. The Award Ceremony will form part of the UK’s celebrations of the Bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence, which is being celebrated globally this year.
The seven short-listed titles are set out below, in alphabetical order (by author):
Title |
Author |
Press |
Period |
Genre |
RRP |
The Byzantine Hellene: The Life of Emperor Theodore Laskaris and Byzantium in the Thirteenth Century |
Dimiter Angelov |
Cambridge University Press (2019) |
Byzantium |
Biography |
£34.99 |
Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation |
Roderick Beaton |
Penguin Random House (2019) |
Modern |
History |
£30 |
A Greek Ballad: Selected Poems |
Michalis Ganas, translated by David Connolly & Joshua Barley |
Yale University Press (2020) |
Modern |
Translation (poetry) |
£30 |
Troy |
Stephen Fry |
Penguin Michael Joseph (2020) |
Antiquity |
Fiction |
£20 |
Venus and Aphrodite |
Bettany Hughes |
Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Orion) (2019) |
Antiquity |
Myth / religion / reception |
£12.99 |
The Moon in the Greek and Roman Imagination: Myth, Literature, Science & Philosophy |
Karen ni Mheallaigh |
Cambridge University Press (2020) |
Antiquity |
Myth / literature / science / philosophy |
£75 |
Adoption, Memory and Cold War Greece: Kid Pro Quo? |
Gonda Van Steen |
University of Michigan Press (2019) |
Modern |
History |
£69.95 |
The judges for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2021 are:
Prof. Peter Frankopan (chair)
Dr Dionysis Kapsalis
Prof. Naoíse Mac Sweeney
Prof. Judith Mossman
Dr Sofka Zinovieff
Details of the new sponsors and of the Award ceremony will be announced shortly.
John Kittmer (Award Administrator)
for the Council of
The Anglo-Hellenic League
9 April 2021
Tuesday 30 March 2021, 6pm
Professor Judith Herrin
‘Ravenna and Constantinople in the sixth-eighth centuries:
Greek influences and detractions’
Zoom Webinar
In this illustrated talk, Professor Judith Herrin addressed the status of Ravenna as the empire's outpost in the West; its importance for diplomatic, military and cultural connections with Constantinople and Greek culture; and the evidence of knowledge, and appreciation, of early medieval Greek within the city. She took us to some of the principal monuments and remains of the city from the sixth to the eighth centuries.
Judith Herrin is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Classics at King’s College London. Her books include Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium, and The Formation of Christendom (all Princeton). Her latest book Ravenna. Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe (Penguin Random House 2020) has recently won the Duff Cooper Pol Roger Prize.
A recording of Prof. Herrin's talk is available on our YouTube channel: here and below.
Bicentenary of the Start of the Greek War of Independence
Letter to the President of the Hellenic Republic
By way of letter dated 25 March 2021, our Chair has written to the President of the Hellenic Republic, Her Excellency Mrs Katerina Sakellaropoulou, on behalf of the members and Council of the League, to express our congratulations on the start of the bicentenary celebrations. A copy of the letter (in Greek) is set out below.
21 BOOKS TO CELEBRATE THE GREEK BICENTENARY
OF 1821-2021
JUDGES ANNOUNCE THE LONG LIST FOR THE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2021
The judging panel for the Runciman Award, for books about Greece, has agreed its long list of 21 books for the competition in 2021.
Out of 79 books submitted for the Award, the judges selected 21 to form their long list, which covers books published in 2019 and 2020. The long list includes books on history, archaeology, reception of antiquity, biography, literature and myth, plus novels and literary translations – across three and a half millennia of the Greek experience.
Peter Frankopan, chair of judges, said: ‘This is a wonderful - and thrilling - long list. We have such an amazing range of books about Greece in all its forms and glories. The books we have chosen go from the siege of Troy to Herodotus through the Byzantine era to Greece in the Cold War and bohemian lives on 1960s Hydra. As we face weeks more locked down because of the pandemic, what a treat to be able to dive into books written by some of the superstars of the academic and literary worlds.'
John Kittmer, chair of the League, said: ‘It is great to be relaunching the Runciman Award in 2021, when we are celebrating the bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence. I am delighted to welcome Peter Frankopan as chair of judges and Sofka Zinovieff as a new member on our panel.’
The Award Ceremony for the Runciman Award 2021 is scheduled to be held in London on 17 June 2021, as part of the UK’s celebration of the bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence. Details of the award ceremony and of the short list will be announced in due course, alongside news of the League’s new sponsorship deal for the Runciman Award.
The full long list of 21 titles is attached.
Council of the League
14 January 2021
NOTES:
Since 1983, the Runciman Award has been run annually by The Anglo-Hellenic League to reward the best book published in the previous year in English about Greece or on a Greek subject. The Award is open to books of scholarship and creativity. The competition was not run in 2020, while new sponsors were sought. A new sponsorship deal has been agreed and will be announced shortly.
The judges for the Runciman Award 2021 are:
Prof. Peter Frankopan (chair)
Dr Dionysis Kapsalis
Prof. Naoíse Mac Sweeney
Prof. Judith Mossman
Dr Sofka Zinovieff
Wednesday 4 November 2020, 7pm.
Michael Cullen, 'Across the Peloponnese: a short walk through thyme'.
Zoom Webinar
The author Michael Cullen gave an illustrated talk on the 15-day north-south hike across the Peloponnese which he first completed in 2016 and describes in his guidebook, Trekking in Greece: The Peloponnese and Pindos Way (Cicerone 2018 - jointly with Tim Salmon). Michael’s talk, accompanied by his own photos, focused on the dramatic landscapes of the Peloponnese, with discursions on history, mythology, flora and fauna, and people.
Michael was born in Athens to British parents and spent as much of his childhood as the school holidays would allow exploring lesser trodden parts of Greece's mainland and islands. After graduating from Cambridge University in French and German, he headed straight back to Greece to set up a programme of adventurous hiking trips around the country, in conjunction with local operator Trekking Hellas. Six years later, armed with lots of hard-won experience, happy memories and lamentably few savings, he expanded his hiking horizons to include France, Spain, Italy and Austria, under the auspices of Oxford-based holiday operator ATG Oxford. The arrival of the dotcom boom, a wife and then a child saw Michael move strategically sideways to co-found a niche accommodation website called i-escape.com, which he still runs to this day. Now based in Bristol, he spends his non-existent spare time singing, wild swimming and updating his two passion-project guidebooks to the Greek mountains.
Those who were unable to make the event can find a full recording on our YouTube channel here and below.
Those who are interested in walking the Peloponnese Way should consult this website.
Tuesday 27 October 2020, 7pm
Polly Samson in Conversation
Zoom Webinar
Author Polly Samson was in conversation with John Kittmer about her latest novel A Theatre for Dreamers (Bloomsbury 2020), set in the sixties on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of writers, painters and musicians live, ruled over by Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled queen and king of bohemia. Within this circle a love triangle forms between writer Axel Jensen, his wife Marianne Ihlen and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen. ‘A spellbinding novel about utopian dreams and innocence lost.’
Polly Samson is the author of two short story collections and three novels. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous prizes, translated into several languages and dramatised on BBC Radio 4. Her novel The Kindness was named Book of the Year by The Times and Observer. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Those who were unable to make the event can find a full recording on our YouTube channel here and below.
Copies of A Theatre for Dreamers can be bought here.
Runciman Award 2021: Notice for Publishers
In 2021, the League is relaunching and offering a prize, known as the Runciman Award, in honour of the late Sir Steven Runciman, for an original work, wholly or mainly about some aspect of Greece or the world of Hellenism, published in English in any country of the world in its first edition during 2019 or 2020. Details of eligibility, terms and conditions of the Award in 2021, including the new process for publishers' nominations of books, are contained in the attached file 'Notice for Publishers'. The entry form is also attached below [not included in the archive].
We shall make an announcement early in 2021 on the website of the Runciman Award about the new sponsorship arrangements, the composition of the judging panel and the key dates for the award in 2021. The chair of judges in 2021 is Prof. Peter Frankopan.
November 2020
In Memoriam: Matti Egon-Xylas (1935-2020)
On behalf of the Council and members of the League, our Chairman has written to the family of Matti Egon-Xylas to express our condolences at her passing away.
Matti was, for many years, an active and generous member of the League. Born into a Greek shipping family, she was largely brought up and educated in England. From an early age she devoted herself to philanthropy, becoming a major benefactor for causes in the UK and Greece. In addition to her involvement with the League, Matti founded the Greek Archaeological Committee UK and, with her second husband, Nicholas Egon, established and endowed the annual Runciman Lecture at King's College London.
Matti was a wonderful, warm and charming person: a friend and inspiration to very many. She will be much missed and remembered with great affection. Αιωνία της η μνήμη.
Council of the League
20 October 2020
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2020
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2020 is Emma Bentley for her essay 'Why are the re-imaginings of the Prometheus myth by Hesiod, Aeschylus, and Plato’s Protagoras so different?’
This year’s runner-up was Molly Duffy for 'Mortality and the Monstrous: An Analysis of the Hellenistic Sculptural Depiction of Medusa from Greece and Magna Graecia’. Jessamyn Madden-Aberdein received a commendation from the judges for 'The Birth of Misunderstanding: What can Delphi and Parnassus tell us about dual worship of Apollo and Dionysus as "twin gods"?’
We thank all students at King's College London who submitted essays for the competition and congratulate the three short-listed students for essays that demonstrated creativity, scholarship and excellent writing.
On receiving news of her £500 award, Emma Bentley said:
‘I'm thrilled and honoured to have won the Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Prize. My essay approached the Prometheus myth through ontological, epistemological, and ethical lenses, and I was struck by the myth's enduring potential for negotiating complex philosophical and ideological questions. I'm so grateful to receive this prize for a piece of work that I thoroughly enjoyed researching.’
This year’s judges were: Prof. Gonda Van Steen, Dr Isabelle Clark and Dr John Kittmer. The council of the League thanks the judges for their hard work.
Because of Covid restrictions, we will be unable to hold an Award ceremony this year. We will make an announcement shortly about our programme for the autumn.
The Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund was created in honour of Katie Lentakis, who played an important role in the Greek resistance, became a prominent member of the Greek community of London, and was for many years the vice-chair of the Anglo-Hellenic League. The prize, which is open to undergraduate students in their final year at King’s College London, was first awarded in 2002.
1 September 2020
Saturday 22 February 2020, 9am
Troy – Myth and Reality: Private Exhibition Viewing
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
By kind agreement of the British Museum, a group of twenty members and supporters of the League had a private viewing of the widely acclaimed exhibition, 'Troy: myth and reality'. The tour was organised by curator Lesley Fitton and led by Alexandra Villing, lead curator of the exhibition. This event raised £690 for the League's charitable purposes. We are grateful to all who kindly donated.
Friday, 7 February 2020, 7pm
Second Annual Lecture in memory of Niki Marangou, by John Kittmer: 'Anglo-Hellenism: adventures in cultural exchange'
Cotsen Hall, Anapiron Polemou, Athens 10676
Tuesday 3 December 2019, 7 pm
Victoria Hislop
‘Victoria Hislop in Conversation’
Wolfson Auditorium, The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
Best-selling author Victoria Hislop was in conversation with John Kittmer (Chair of the League) about her passion for Greece and the role that Greece plays in her writing, including her latest book Those Who Are Loved.
Monday 17 June 2019, 6pm
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2019
King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS
Dr Anastasia Bakogianni: ‘Fidelity vs. Creativity: The Screen Reception of Ancient Tragedy in Modern Greece’
The League announced the winner and short-listed students for the Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2019.
The winner of the £500 award was Gina Prat Lilly for an essay entitled: 'Between dictatorship and exile: Two Antigones of postwar Spain. Salvador Espriu’s Antígona and María Zambrano’s La tumba de Antígona.'
The two highly commended entries were Medea Manaz for an essay entitled: ‘Is Acting Madness? A Metatheatrical Reading of Euripides’ Bacchae’ and Mark Coomber for 'The Importance of Christianity to the Imperial Ideology of the Empire of Trebizond 1204-1448’.
The award ceremony was followed by an illustrated lecture given by Dr Anastasia Bakogianni, Lecturer in Classical Studies at Massey University, New Zealand.
Thursday 13 June 2019, 7pm
Runciman Award Ceremony 2019
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The Runciman Award Ceremony 2019 took place in the Great Hall of the Hellenic Centre at 7pm on Thursday 13 June.
The £9,000 award, sponsored by Elias Paraskevas Attorneys1933, was shared between:
Time and its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire
Paul J Kosmin
Belknap Press of Harvard
The Transformation of Athens
Robin Osborne
Princeton University Press
Also on the short list were the following four books which the judges commended highly:
The Gardens of Corfu
Rachel Weaving with Marianne Majerus
Impress
The Excerpta Constantiniana and the Byzantine Appropriation of the Past
Andras Németh
CUP
The Best of the Grammarians
Francesca Schironi
University of Michigan Press
Hesiod, Works and Days
A E Stallings (trans.)
Penguin Classics
For further information visit our website: runcimanaward.org.
Thursday 13 June 2019, 5pm
Annual General Meeting of the League
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The Annual General Meeting for the year ending 31 December 2018 took place at the Hellenic Centre at the above date and time. The AGM approved the minutes of its meeting in 2018; noted the Chair's report; noted the Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for 2018; and elected members of the Council for 2019-2020.
Tuesday 2 April 2019, 7 pm
Sofka Zinovieff
‘Three Anglo-Greek families: three books’
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Sofka Zinovieff spoke to the League about the Anglo-Greek lives of the families described in three of her books: two fictional, Putney (2018) and The House on Paradise Street (2012), and one autobiographical, Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens (2004).
The event raised £525 for the Greek disability charity, ELEPAP.
Tuesday 12 February 2019, 7pm
Prof. Michael Scott (University of Warwick)
‘We are going where?’ TV and Classics, now and in the future
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Prof Michael Scott gave an illustrated talk, to the League and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, about the making of his latest BBC2 TV series, Ancient Invisible Cities, in which real-life exploration of hard-to-reach ancient locations combine with high resolution laser-scanning and virtual reality to open up spaces and landscapes never before seen on TV.
Tuesday 27 November 2018, 7pm
Prof. Gonda Van Steen
Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece: Kid pro quo?
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Prof. Van Steen gave a presentation that delved into the postwar adoption movement of Greek children dispatched to the United States (1950s-1960s). Her illustrated talk situated this understudied phenomenon against the backdrop of Cold War politics and society.
Thursday 15 November 2018, 7pm
Anastasios P. Leventis, CBE
Climate change, biodiversity and the need for action in today's Hellenic world
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Tassos Leventis gave a presentation on climate change, its effects on the natural world and on human society. The Mediterranean basin and Middle East are among the areas most at risk and the presentation assessed how Greece and Cyprus are responding to the challenge. The event raised €600 for Elliniki Etairia: Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage.
Thursday 25 October 2018, 7pm
John Kittmer
My Thessaloniki - A personal tour of the city and its culture
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
John Kittmer gave a personal tour of the city of Thessaloniki, its immediate environs and culture, highlighting places, history and the people of the city.
Monday 18 June 2018, 6pm
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2018: A celebration of 100 years from the founding of the Koraes Chair
King's College London: Great Hall King's Building Strand Campus
The League was represented at the event to celebrate the centenary of the Koraes Chair. Three members of the League's Council gave addresses: Prof. Roderick Beaton (outgoing holder of the Koraes Chair), Prof. Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith and John Kittmer. The keynote speaker at the event was Ms Lydia Koniordou, Greek Minister of Culture. The Koraes Professor-designate, Gonda Van Steen, gave the vote of thanks.
As part of the centenary event, the Chair of the League announced the winner of this year's Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award. This prize is awarded annually in honour of Katie Lentakis, a former Vice-Chair of the Council, to a final-year undergraduate in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King's College London, for an essay on a topic related to any field of Hellenic Studies.
This year, three students were short-listed for the award:
The winner for 2018 is Harry Tanner. The League congratulates him for his excellent essay. A copy of the introductory remarks contributed by the Chair of the League is attached.
For an account (in Greek) of the event in the newspaper Καθημερινή, click here. To see the full video of the centenary event, click here.
Thursday 14 June 2018, 6pm
Runciman Award 2018
The Hellenic Centre, 16–18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The winners of the Runciman Award 2018 were announced at a ceremony, in the presence of our President and Chief Patron HRH Prince Michael of Kent, on Thursday 14 June 2018.
Congratulations to Matthew Simonton, author of Classical Greek Oligarchy: A Political History, and Colm Toibin, author of House of Names.
Guest speaker: Neil MacGregor, OM
Sponsored by Elias Paraskevas Attorneys
Information about the award (including list of books submitted, short-list and interviews with short-llisted authors) can be found at www.runcimanaward.org.
Awarding the winners (from L - R): HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Chief Patron and President of the League; Dimitris Paraskevas, Sponsor of the Runciman Award; Mary Mount, publisher of Colm Toibin (joint winner); Prof. Matthew Simonton (joint winner)
The winning books
Thursday 14 June 2018, 4.30pm
Annual General Meeting
The Hellenic Centre, 16–18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The Annual General Meeting for the year ending 31 December 2017 was held on Thursday 14 June 2018 at 4.30 pm, with John Kittmer in the chair.
Thursday 31 May 2018, 5.45 pm
Private visit to "Rodin and the art of ancient Greece"
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
Under the guidance of distinguished art historian and archaeologist Ian Jenkins, a private visit by members of the League took place of "Rodin and the art of ancient Greece".
Tuesday 17 April 2018, 7pm.
'The Macedonian Front 1915-1918: Soldiers, Nurses and Politicians at the forgotten front'
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
The League, together with the Macedonian Society of Great Britain, presented a round table with illustrations on Macedonia in the First World War.
Speakers were:
Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith, Visiting Professor, King’s College London
Professor Vasilis Gounaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Alan Wakefield, Imperial War Museum
Professor Christine Hallett, The University of Manchester
Dr Anthony Hirst
Wednesday 21 March 2018, 8.45 a.m.
Private visit to "Charmed lives in Greece: Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor"
The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
The private visit to the exhibition was guided by two of its Curators, Evita Arapoglou and Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith.
Monday 27 November 2017, 7pm
Post-crisis Greek Foreign Policy: Challenges and Prospects
Round-table discussion
Monday 9 October 2017, 7pm
Prof. Roderick Beaton
"Nikos Kazantzakis: a retrospect, 60 years from his death"
The Hellenic Centre, 16–18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS
Thu 15 June 2017, 7.00pm
Runciman Award 2017
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington St., Marylebone, London W1
Directly following the League's Annual General Meeting, the ceremony for the Runciman Award 2017 took place. The Prize is sponsored by Elias Paraskevas Attorneys.
The Prize was awarded jointly to Professor Ivan Drpić and Professor Marc Domingo Gygax.
Epigram, Art, and Devotion in Later Byzantium by Professor Ivan Drpić (CUP)
This is a gripping book with wonderful illustrations that evoke the richness and complexity of the texts and objects explored in it.
Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos, Chairman of the Judges
Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City: The Origins of Euergetism by Professor Marc Domingo Gygax (CUP )
This is an entirely new way of looking at the system of the gift in ancient Greece. Focusing on benefaction of various kinds and the reciprocity it sparked the author explores the origins of the system in archaic Greece and illuminates the tensions with which it was fraught.
Dr Dionysios Stathakopoulos, Chairman of the Judges
Fri 31 March 2017, 7pm
John Kittmer
Former British Ambassador to Greece (2013-2016)
Reflection on four years in Greece: Optimism amid crisis?
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington St., Marylebone, London W1
Tue 11 October 2016
All that glitters is gold: The Grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington St., Marylebone, London W1
This fund-raising lecture by the husband-and-wife team of Jack Davis and Sharon
Stocker presented for the first time in London an account of the major archaeological discovery in Greece last year, next to the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor at Pylos in the Peloponnese: the unrobbed,
and unexpected, grave of a 15th century BC Mycenaean warrior-prince, buried with his weapons and in his finery with a wealth of sealstones and jewellery. The Grave of the Griffin Warrior is a
spectacular find that matches contemporary graves such as those Heinrich Schliemann dug at Mycenae, while helping to explain the Cretan connections with the southwest Peloponnese and the rise of the
site that later hosted the Mycenaean palace.
Sharon Stocker and Jack Davis have worked principally on Kea, in the Argolid and
Albania, and at Pylos, where the University of Cincinnati has excavated since 1939.
Dr Stocker is a Senior Research Associate at Cincinnati, and Professor Davis the Carl
W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology and Head of the Classics Department at Cincinnati; he has also been Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
The Anglo-Hellenic League was honoured to present this lecture, sponsored by the A. G. Leventis Foundation.
More information on the topic at www.griffinwarrior.org
Sat 10 September 2016
The 2016 Albania – Corfu Swim
The Anglo-Hellenic League Council, in its effort to contribute to other good causes, agreed to support the organisers of the 2016 Swim from Albania to Agios Stephanos, Corfu. All funds raised were given to The Smile of the Child Home, which is situated in the north of Corfu where 22 children are currently housed and educated. The Smile of the Child also distributes clothes, food and medicines to needy families throughout the island as well as continuing to support the children when they go on to further education.
Wed 15 June 2016
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2016
Council Room, King’s College London, Strand WC2
The Centre for Hellenic Studies is pleased to announce that the winner of this year’s award is:
Vanessa Szymanska (Classics), for a dissertaton entitled
What significance did the cult of Artemis at Brauron bear upon the lives of young girls and their families in Classical Attica? An exploration of key scholarly debates and a reconcilation of literary and material sources’,
supervised by Professor Hugh Bowden.
Tue 14 June 2016
Runciman Award 2016
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1
This year’s winner of the Runciman Award for books published in 2015 was Sharon E J Gerstel's, Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium (CUP).
The Award was announced at a ceremony by the Chairman of the panel of judges Prof. Tom Harrison. See www.runcimanaward.org for further details.
Wed 9 March 2016
Visit to the Travellers Club, London SW1
A joint event of th Anglo-Hellenic League and the Friends of British School at Athens
On 9 March 2016 members of the Anglo-Hellenic League held a joint gathering with the Friends of the British School at Athens in the Library of the Travellers Club. The purpose of the occasion was to
view some of this Library’s rare and fascinating books relating to the earliest expeditions made by British travellers to the historic sites of ancient Greece, and to see the replica of the frieze
from the temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae. The temple was 'discovered' by a group of travellers including Charles Cockerell, one of the founding members of the Travellers Club. Its original
frieze, brought back by this group, is now in the British Museum, and the replica in the Travellers Club Library is one of only two ever made. Nearly 40 members of the two organizations attended. The
Librarian of the Travellers Club, Sheila Markham, and Ian Jenkins of the British Museum greatly added to the interest of the occasion with deeply learned and fascinating talks about what we were
seeing. From comments received after the event it appears that all present found it a richly rewarding experience.
Wed 24 February 2016
'For the Greece We Love'
A special event to support Elliniki Etairia
(Greek Society for the Environment & Cultural Heritage www.ellet.gr)
On 24 February 2016 the Anglo-Hellenic League hosted a special event to support Elliniki Etairia, the Greek Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage, at the Hellenic Centre in London. An
audience of 140 attended the evening, which was generously sponsored by the A. G. Leventis Foundation, and supported by the Centre. Costa and Lydia Carras, the founders of Elliniki
Etairia, spoke powerfully about the struggles and achievements of the Society over the last 40 years throughout Greece, with a stirring account of the campaigns it has fought against governments and
developers, with many notable successes.
They showed the broad range of work Elliniki Etairia undertakes, to protect the built environment — buildings of national or local significance, or whole areas of a city like the Plaka in Athens —
and areas of the natural environment, whether significant for their natural history or (as with protection of the coast and restoration of long-distance footpaths) for people and recreation. We heard
how the Society wins supporters inside Greece and beyond, working with the Europe-wide organisation Europa Nostra.
An estimated total, including Gift Aid, of £7300 was raised to support the work of Elliniki Etairia.
Thu 18 June 2015
Runciman Award 2015
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1
This year’s winner of the Runciman Award for books published in 2014 was Armand M. Leroi’s The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science (Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Award was announced at a ceremony by the Chairman of the panel of judges
Dr Chris Burnand.
Tue 16 June 2015
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2015
Council Room, King’s College London, Strand WC2
Winner of the prize:
Miss Rebecca McNamara (Department of Classics), for her dissertation entitled
‘The Ambiguous Home of Life and Death: the symbolic uses of the skene and the female in Aeschylus' Agamemnon’,
supervised by Dr Emmanuela Bakola.
Tue 25 November 2014
The 'Anglo-Hellenic Review' 50th Issue Celebration/Farewell Dinner
Vasis Taverna, 56 Maple Street, London W1
A celebratory supper to celebrate the final issue, and to express the League’s appreciation of the generous contribution of the Review’s editorial staff, writers and sponsors.
Runciman Award 2014
The Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London W1
This year’s winner of the Runciman Award for books published in 2013 was Roderick Beaton’s Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (Cambridge University Press)
The Award was announced at a ceremony by the Chairman of the panel of judges Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou.
Tue 10 June 2014
Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award 2014
Council Room, King’s College London, Strand WC2
Winner of the prize:
Miss Melissa J Gardner (Department of Classics) for her dissertation entitled
'A Comparison of the Representation of Divinity in the Homeric Epics and the Epic of Gilgamesh', supervised by Professor Giambattista d’Alessio.
Tue 27 May 2014
'Crete on the Eve of Enosis', Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith KCVO
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1
A joint Anglo-Hellenic League and Friends of the British School at Athens lecture
chaired by Mr Gerald Cadogan.