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Brimbank, Australia, Deputy Mayor Dr Kathryn Eriksson has just had her third book published and has plans for two more.

A passion for archaeology since she was a young girl has led Brimbank’s Deputy Mayor, Dr Kathryn Eriksson, to have three books published, with plans for another two in the next two years. Dr Eriksson’s latest work is on the archaeology and history of ancient Cyprus.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I’d always been interested in archaeology. I was the little girl in class always saying I wanted to be an archaeologist and the other kids would ask, ‘What’s that?’”

Dr Eriksson, whose work is internationally renowned, has been working on the book for five years on behalf of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

Titled The Creative Independence of Late Bronze Age Cyprus, it is said to be the most comprehensive and definitive account of this period of ancient Cyprus (1580 to 1180 BC) ever published. It is volume 10 of a 14-book series. Dr Eriksson is a specialist in the area of ancient Cypriot ceramics of the Bronze Age.

In her earlier book, Red Lustrous Wares, she was able to establish that this form of pottery originated in Cyprus and not in Syria. The recent book adds to the previous one with a comprehensive analysis of another pottery form, White Slip Ware.

“Philhellenic Images as Pictorial and Political Statements” is the title of the 17th Runciman Lecture next Tuesday at King’s College, London.

Fani-Maria Tsigakou will argue that such images shed light not only on 19th-century artistic trends but also on ideological concepts. Tsigakou is the curator of the Department of Paintings, Prints and Drawings at the original Benaki Museum in Athens. She did her doctoral dissertation for London University on Edward Lear, more than 1,000 of whose drawings are in the collection of the Gennadius Library in Athens.

The British Embassy in Athens and the British School of Archaeology also have original drawings by Lear. Lear’s Greek works are a “complete record of the Greek landscape in the mid-19th century,” Tsigakou notes in her book “Athens through the Eyes of Foreign Artists-Travelers, 16th-19th Centuries” which came out recently in a bilingual Greek-English edition from Oistros Technis publishers. During her postgraduate studies, Tsigakou met Sir Steven Runciman, who wrote the introduction to her book “The Rediscovery of Greece” published by Thames and Hudson in 1981, which has been translated into Greek, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

  A page from Lord Byron’s notebook from his first visit to Greece in 1809. In his speech on Wednesday Pispinis underlined the decisive role that Lord Byron played in shaping European opinion of post-revolutionary Greece.

A very special evening took place at the Greek Embassy in London on Wednesday, at a private viewing of the “Lord Byron and the John Murray Archive” collection. Jointly organized by Greek Ambassador Vassilis Pispinis and Lady Balfour of Burleigh, trustee of the National Library of Scotland and Chairman of the Campaign for the John Murray Archive, the event featured manuscripts written by the hand of, or related to Lord Byron.

The documents are part of the John Murray Archive which has now been acquired by the National Library of Scotland. In his address, Ambassador Pispinis noted: “Lord Byron’s passionate association with Greece is one of the pivotal links which bring together our two countries. The treasures on show this evening bear witness to the poet’s love for Greece, its culture, its language and, especially, its people. These documents also attest to the fact that Byron established a pattern in the relationship between Greece and Britain, which has endured, in peace and war. Through his personality, his genuine interest and his poetry, he also shaped the way his continental contemporaries saw Greece. Before Byron, Europeans looked at Greece almost uniquely from a classical perspective, as an object of antiquity. Byron radically changed that perception. Through his verses he wrote while in Greece, he revealed to the world a picture of a country full of passion and color, still very much alive, a country peopled by contemporary living beings deserving better than the fate which was theirs.”

The private viewing included a notebook belonging to Lord Byron with words and phrases written in Greek, his last diary, “Cephalonia Journal, 1823-1824” as well as an excerpt from his unfinished poem, “Aristomenes, Canto First.”

We first have to face the facts. Nicosia, Limassol or Paphos will never be New York, London, Amsterdam or Paris. But that does not mean that one cannot ape the lifestyle, if anything just to make oneself feel better or simply because it makes sense.

As prices are sky-rocketing even on our own little dry patch, people will inevitably look for innovative solutions to their housing problems. And if you want to stay close to the centre of town, where maybe not all is happening, but at least something more is going on than in the sleepy suburbs, increasingly your sole option will be to go ‘up’.

“So why not a loft?” ask the authors. Why not indeed? “Buying a loft means opting for a form of housing that is full of authentic charm, volume, perspective, light and free space”, they argue, and a quick glance through the magnificent photographs in this volume is persuasion enough.

You may not even have to forego the notion of a garden, they passionately argue, as most lofts have spacious terraces that require far less maintenance than a real garden. If you fancy yourself as a city slicker, you clearly won’t have much gardening time on your hands between working, entertaining and embarking on foreign trips to all the covetable destinations mentioned above.

The only drawback, the Tectum publishing team readily admits, is that lofts are usually located in old industrial or run-down districts that are only just coming back to life. Yes, but that’s why you can afford all that space in the first place, remember?

So back to all that space: it is massive, seamless, exciting to look at. Materials and textures are on a vast scale so they make a huge impact. Clever lighting solutions designate separate areas even when all the rooms run into and out of each other.

Fireplaces, plants, staircases, dining tables, sofas and other furniture take on architectural qualities as they stand alone, statement-like, against vast expanses of white walls and concrete or wooden floors.

Even children’s bedrooms are laid out in the same sparse spirit, and you can just imagine the happy havoc that may be wrought by a three-year-old let loose on a tricycle in a space as generous as this. Ingenious storage solutions, bathrooms and heating systems are also part of the package.

The only thing we might quibble with is the cost. Allegedly in Antwerp, where the publishing company has its headquarters, all these wondrous conversions can be yours, including the fees of a very competent architect, for an average of 600 euros per square metre. Really? So we are living in the wrong place after all.

Loft Concept is published by Tectum and is available from Moufflon Bookshops, Cyprus.

Related Links > http://www.moufflon.com.cy

Greek publishers participate at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the world, which opened yesterday.

Greece is present at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which started yesterday. The Panhellenic Federation of Publishers and Booksellers (POEB) is representing the Greek book trade with a collective stand, while 13 Greek publishers have their own stands. Speaking to the press last week in Athens, the new administration of POEB explained their policy for promoting Greek books more effectively at book fairs. Instead of simply asking publishers for “books for Frankfurt,” as in the past, POEB’s librarians have made a selection of books that are likely to interest foreign rights buyers. In the future, they will take only books published in the previous 12 months.

The National Book Center of Greece (EKEBI) is using part of the POEB stand at Frankfurt to promote the Thessaloniki Book Fair by actively schmoozing with makers and shakers in the book world.

One strong card that Greek publishers can now play when selling foreign rights is the news that the Culture Ministry’s long moribund program for supporting translations of Greek books has at last been reactivated.

Frankfurt Book Fair, a subsidiary of the German Publishers & Book Sellers’ Association is the world’s largest book fair, attracting more than 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries.

Prize-winning British author James Meek author of compelling novel ‘The People’s Act of Love’ visits Greece > James Meek’s ‘The People’s Act of Love’ (Canongate, 2005) was translated into Greek by Maria Zachariadou for Ellinika Grammata.

Siberia during the Russian Revolution is the setting for James Meek’s latest novel, “The People’s Act of Love,” winner of the 2006 Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award and the 2006 Ondaatje Prize.

In that harsh, remote landscape, a singular cast plays out the extremes of human emotion and belief. A Jewish lieutenant in a Czech legion stranded by the fortunes of war, a sect of Christians who seek purity through castration, a woman who flouts convention in the pursuit of love, and a man who claims to have escaped both a prison camp and a would-be cannibal, encounter what the author calls “life’s absolute tests.”

Meek, author of three novels and two collections of short stories, also worked as a reporter for 20 years, winning awards for his articles on places such as Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. He contributes to the Guardian, the London Review of Books and Granta.

Meek is currently visiting Greece as the guest of the British Council and his Greek publishers Ellinika Grammata.

Meet James Meek today at the British Council in Thessaloniki, 9 Ethnikis Amynas Street, at 7.30p.m., and tomorrow in Athens, 17 Kolonaki Square, Kolonaki, at 8 p. m.

Solving Light Books announced today the publication to the Web of 37 images of Noah uncovered in ancient Greek art.

The surprising Web presentation includes commentary by Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., author of “The Parthenon Code: Mankind’s History in Marble” and most recently, “Noah in Ancient Greek Art.”

According to Johnson, ancient Greek artists and poets called Noah “Nereus”, meaning the “Wet One”, and also referred to him as the “Salt Sea Old Man.” Greek artists depicted Noah/Nereus in black-figure vase-scenes, red-figure vase-scenes, and in sculpture.

The Web presentation shows that Greek artists depicted Noah/Nereus being threatened and pushed out of the way by the Greek hero and rebel, Herakles. Artists also portrayed Herakles as grabbing Noah/Nereus from behind, figuratively bringing him, and his rule, to a halt. Ancient vase-painters and sculptors also put Noah/Nereus into scenes as a solemn and dejected witness to key events heralding the takeover of Zeus-religion, including the defeat of his Yahweh-believing sons, and the birth of the serpent-friendly Athena.

“The prevailing notion in academic circles that Greek vase-artists and sculptors spent their lives depicting imaginary or “mythical” events is absurd on its face. The Greek “gods” look exactly like people, because that’s who they were, our ancestors,” Mr. Johnson said. “An enormous amount of information about mankind’s true origins hides in plain sight in the art of ancient Greece. These many images of the Greek version of Noah, now made available to the public on the Web, are just a small part of it,” he added.

Related Links > http://www.solvinglight.com/features/37NoahsPartI.htm