Athena Kakouri

Athina Kakouri was born in 1928 in Patra and published her essays on curent issues and travelogues at the, then, largest newspaper, Neologos of Patra. At the beginning of the sixties,  Yorgos and Lena Savides who ran the magazine Tachydromos started printing regularly her mystery short stories with illustrations by Bost; these were eventually published as a book titled Alati sta fistikia (Salt on the peanuts). She was also writing commisioned news items for the same magazine and ended up  becoming one of its editors. During that period, she also scripted a series of radio broadcasts, did translations for well established publishing houses, mainly of literature and history, and collaborated with a number of other publications.

In the mid-seventies, Alkis Aggelou encouraged her to write a historical novel set in the period of the Enlightenment. The preparatory work for the books Fortune’s knife and Offspring of the wind,  took the best part of a decade. There followed, though at a faster pace, the  books:  On the wings of Marika – an aviatory feat at the time of the Schism; Primarolia- Patra of the raisins; the rise and the crisis; The kite – Lavrion and its alleged mythical wealth, an insanity of the money market, and Thekli – social and political repercussions of the 1912 and 1913 wars. Athena Kakouri says that her advanced years allow her to function as a tour guide in the past of our land.

Bibliography by Kastaniotis Editions S.A:

• Greek Crimes Vol. 4, 2011
• Greek Crimes 3, 2009