"Some Talk of Alexander is a private odyssey through the art, poetry, politics, warfare and the men and women of the Greek world. Frederic Raphael's book is a deliberate amalgam, in which the interplay of myth and reason, high ideals and low cunning are seen to work together in the plaited texture of ancient society. " "Taking examples from different times and places, Raphael depicts the genius and the folly, the heroism and the deviousness of the birthplace of European civilization. Having lived in the Cyclades in the 1960s, he also recalls the harsh, idyllic life of a Greece untouched by mass tourism, and the infamous Colonels, whose modern tyranny ended in shambles and the return of democracy. "--BOOK JACKET.