BOMBED OUT OF CYPRUS Trouble was brewing, even in the remote Troodos Mountains. In 1974 I witnessed the first signs of events that would see us bombed out of Cyprus and change it forever. Soon there would be rebellion, invasion, ethnic conflict, deaths and an occupying United Nations peace-keeping force that’s still on patrol 50 […]

When Italian business people go for an impromptu night out in a famed gastronomic city, you would feel confident the food would be good and the wine outstanding. However, what happened afterwards provided “la ciliegina sulla torta” for this night out on the tiles with a Sicilian corker. by Terry Walker AS06042024 8 minute read […]

By Terry Walker 03032024 8 minute read from My Life, in Words An historic moment, for surely the mighty fortress Tower of London has never been abandoned to its fate? An act of chivalry, becomes a bomb scare and a unique moment in family history with repercussions that stopped short of a hanging… Two American […]

A family’s history can take many different turns down through time. My “turning” was already mapped out when, as a determined 16-year-old I arrived at the crossroads and changed direction without any hesitation. I was on the road to a career I had dreamed about for a long time… I had converted a summer office […]

It was a Friday like no other in the history of a family and in the history of the world. A peaceful village wedding and the biggest military bombardment in history, taking place simultaneously… The first wedding bells and the first shots of World War II ringing out as Hitler invades Poland and spoils a […]

My grandfather was born 24 years after after his Jewish father, Jacob arrived from Russia after being rescued…Great-grandfather Jacob fled Imperial Russia as an army draft dodger with a gang of Cossack chappers (bounty hunters) was hot on his trail… his 12-year-old wife-to-be, Rachel and her daughter Leah, a baby in arms not yet a […]

Did you ever have a bad day? I mean, a really, really bad day? In western Cyprus, one particular September day turned out to be not only bad but could have been fatal…except for a bit of luck and happenstance. Here’s the true story of a lifesaving tomb rescue from a prehistoric necropolis. There are […]

One of the objectives of the media and marketing work Grafton PR was doing for the Isle of Man Government in the 1970s was to emphasise the “differences” between that place and the rest of the British Isles. Press releases to travel and general media and TV holiday programmes, like Wish You Were Here, always […]

The Pathos Beach Hotel was in the last stages of construction on land above a sandy beach that curved around the bay to the small harbour of Paphos, guarded by a 13th century Ottoman fort. A string of local bars and restaurants lined the harbourside. It was unspoilt; it was idyllic because Paphos was the […]

The Troodos mountains in Cyprus, the favourite hideaway of EOKA insurgents fighting British troops in the 1950s, have been the established battleground for regular rumbles involving ethnic and local political differences since the island was divided between Greeks and Turks. After the successful opening of the Paphos Beach Hotel in southwest Cyprus, Grafton partner Geoff […]