Dear Friends of Kythera,

since our presentation in January the website team has had to catch up with our “real jobs” and have been pleased to see that the website is capable of expanding without assistance.

In fact, there have been some exceptional submissions since the last report, including the one which fills the opposite column of this article. As I have already mentioned in a previous article, Rowan Parkes is our collator on the island. She collects material from all over the island, and submits it in the name of the person she has interviewed or whose photo-collection she has uploaded. Occasionally she writes a piece herself, as is the case with the report opposite.

Another noteworthy recent entry is “Return to Kythera -a documentary film” by David Page, who was an First Secretary - Immigration at the Australian Embassy in Greece in the 1970s. He commissioned “Return to Kythera”, a film about Arthur Frilingos returning to Kythera to meet his sister for the first time – she was born after he left Greece in 1912, which was produced on behalf of the Australian Department of Immigration in 1972. David also assisted in its production. His entry gives details about how to obtain a copy of the film from the national archives. The entry can be viewed in the message board section of the site.

Not a week has gone by since the site first went online without Peter Tsicalas of Mullumbimby (Northern New South Wales) adding to it. Peter is the quiet hero of our site: it is his entries which form the historical backbone of Kythera-Family.net. In the General History section he has contributed 5 mammoth pieces named Northern NSW numbered one to five. Behind the unassuming titles hides a treasure-trove of Kytherian settlement information written so entertainingly that they read like anecdotes from the wild north. Add to that his nine Research/Archive entries which include the Greek/Australian Census of 1916 and lists of “Early Greek Arrivals” in Australia and you will hopefully realise that I am not overstating when I refer to Peter in such heroic terms. Don’t miss his entries if you can.

And thanks to the dozens of others who have contributed to the site!

James Prineas, Website Team Leader Europe

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Where she’d rather be this weekend
submitted by Rowan Parkes 21.02.2004

In April-May 2003 Kythera was shell-shocked by the filming of the UK BBC TV-thriller “Carla”. For a month or so the whole island was in uproar and business soared as various TV crews, from both the Greek and UK teams, swarmed up and down Kapsali and from there over the rest of the island. Many Kytherians, both local and foreign, were called in as extras. Local craftsmen found sudden employment (and may I say what a great job they did!) and a period of general hustle and bustle ensued. I myself had the luck of becoming a member of the art department, and consider it to have been one of my favourite times on the island. A time in which I really came to appreciate the beauty of my home, as I spent most of my time painting while overlooking Kapsali, the bay seemed to be doing its best to outshine itself, the same goes for all the parts of the island where shooting took place, the whole scenery was infinitely beautiful, and I believe everyone had a lot of fun!

The whole thing of course turned into a huge advertisement for Kythera, as the film was shown on UK television. The nation remarked on the beauty of the scenery, and even more so when Lesley Sharp, who played one of the main characters, did an interview for a UK magazine titled “Where I’d rather be this weekend”. Three guesses where she chose! Apparently we will be seeing Lesley again very soon, this time with family in tow. She described the island as “unspoilt, with no high rise developments or mass tourism” where “the pace of life is very gentle”, the beaches “absolutely stunning, with crystal clear water”, scenery that is “unusually lush and green in the spring and covered in wonderfully scented wild flowers and wild thyme”, the temperature “perfect”, a place with “so much to see, ancient castles, villages, churches, canyons, forests, rivers, mountains and open markets (actually Lesley that was the set…)”. Also: “the sunsets are lovely and the stars so bright...”
Thank you Lesley!
(This entry by Rowan Parkes can be found in the “Written about Us” section of the site)