So, I know very little about the author of tonight’s story. He has no Wikipedia page in any language that I can gather, one used copy of an out-of-print collection of stories available in English (that I can cursorily find, anyhow), and a slight dusting of a presence in literary anthologies, including one in which I dusted off this. In fact, the only thing I’m certain of regarding tonight’s author is that I really ought to attempt to learn basic Greek pronunciation if I’m going to crack at anything like this again.
It’s a fiery little story, though. Let me know what you know, if you know what I think you know. And if you don’t know, teach me Greek.
And, this is the last time I’ll mention it here (for now), for fear of becoming Miette’s Bedtime Story Infomercial, but if you’re still hungry when you’ve finished with this, you should listen to my narration of the first chapters of The Man Who Can’t Die.
From Wadworth.com…Panos Ioannides was born in 1935 in Cyprus. Ioannides grew up during a tumultuous period in Cyprus’s history and he often draws on the political conflict that surrounded him during this period when writing his plays, novels, and short stories.
Ioannides story “Gregory” is one of his most famous works. “Gregory” was first published in 1963 and is based on a real incident that took place during the Cypriot Liberation struggle against the British in the late 1950s. The narrator of the story is forced to kill Gregory, a friend who has saved the narrator’s life.
Today, Ioannides also serves as president of the Cyprus Refugees Union.
Thanks Jim– I did find these few paragraphs, but was surprised that that’s -all- I could find! There is a little acknowledgement in the anthology from which I plucked the story, but his seems far too meaty of a story for it to have so little a presence online.
Keep your eyes peeled!
xo
— Mtte.
Unfortunately it seems like a rather common name in Greek. “ΠΑÎΟΣ ΙΩΑÎÎΙΔΗΣ” returns pianos and real estate, among other things.
This tiny 2004 article might amuse you-
http://www.xak.com/main/newsshow.asp?id=35466
if only for his opponent’s classic rebuttal “Panos Ioannides complains about everything.” Other than that, I can’t find anything. Great story, though.
Thanks Chris!
That’s way better than what I found, which I’ve posted here:
http://miette-reads.posterous.com/more-about-panos-ioannides
I’m more intrigued by the minute.
And CJ, you’re right– the name turns up everywhere. Although the more I learn about our Panos, the more I wonder if he’s just exceptionally prolific, and all these signs point back to him. That’d be -something-.
had a Cypriot friend mention ‘Gregory’ to me several years ago
thanks for posting, I;d never have found this story elsewhere
Phenomenal story; beautifully read. From the riveting beginning to the murderous, bloody end, I was thoroughly captivated. I must have re-listened to it three times since then. Thank you, Miette, for this fantastic masterpiece of a short story…
Hello, My name is Haris Ioannides, Panos’s son and also his publisher. Was very glad to see this post and I’d like to raise, if I may, a couple of points. It is true that its a relatively common name and I’d like to point out its another person with the same name serving as the Cyprus Refugees Union. This Panos is the President of the Cyprus P.E.N. Center. In addition, we are currently in the process of updating his international profile by including his bio into wikipedia and other online fora. ‘Gregory’ is part of an anthology we brought out in 2009, “Gregory and other stories”. If you’d like to see his full bio, we have created an authors page on amazon. Please let me know if this information is helpful.