As a young student the author, fell in love with the architecture of the ancient Greeks whilst studying for a career in architecture. There was something special about that crazy, dysfunctional family of Greek gods that inhabited the cloud shrouded top of Mount Olympus.
However, no matter how crazy their gods seem to us, the Greek people felt motivated to raise some of the most beautiful buildings that the ancient world would produce. Culminating in the Parthenon on the Athens Acropolis.
It's when you put these monuments into the context of the times they were built, that you realise just how special they were. For the most part we see ruins, but the author, armed with his Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture, is able to help the reader imagine these monuments as they would have appeared in their time.
Almost fifty years ago the author's wife offered him the chance to visit mainland Greece, so that they could explore the splendour of ancient Greece together. The fact that their visit coincided with the Junta of the five Greece Colonels (21st April 1967 - 24th July 1974), wasn't expected but provided an interesting backdrop to the trip.
The author, a keen photographer, took many photographs of the various monuments that they visited in early February 1974. With the advent of digital photography it was necessary to convert the colour slides to digital format and whilst there is some loss of colour quality, it's when you compare the access we enjoyed in 1974, that the slight loss of colour quality seems irrelevant. In a sense, it's almost as if the pictures are looking back at us from 1974.
The author has described this trip as a pilgrimage, in a very real sense it was, his fellow pilgrim on the trip was his wife, Bobby, who sadly died in 2009. The production of this book stands as a loving account of a special time which, whilst many years ago, is as fresh as if it was just yesterday.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
The Self-Publishing Partnership Ltd
Illustrationen
Plates, unspecified; Halftones, unspecified
Maße
Höhe: 234 mm
Breite: 156 mm
Dicke: 5 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83952-253-6 (9781839522536)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
David Haslam was to spend his working life in the world of architecture, a career that started in the early 1960s and continued until his retirement in March 2011.
His career spanned the period of 1960's Office Development, when he worked for Denis Crump & Partners (DC&P), during this time he worked on a number of historic buildings, where he use his love of historic architecture.
The late 1970s saw him working on designs for Heathrow Airport. In the early 1980s he became an Associate Partner of the Epsom based Practice 'Chalkely Benstead Partnership'.
In 1983 he formed his own architectural practice 'Home Plans' specialising in one-off high-end domestic architecture, designing one-off houses for a range of important clients.
David's Practice had an impressive client list, with prospective clients often prepared to wait up-to six months just to get onto his busy work schedule.
He never lost his love of architectural history, often using historic details in his designs.
Between 1978 & 1994 David was elected as Councillor for the Biggin Hill Ward of the London Borough of Bromley. Biggin Hill is famous as one of the key RAF fighter Stations charged with the defence of London during the Battle of Britain, WWII.
The Airport is owned by the Council and David was to become one of the three Council appointed Airport Directors and in the period 1992-94 he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Biggin Hill Airport Limited.
He never lost his love of history continued to expand his knowledge to include the history of the Airport and the village that he represented for sixteen years.
