The second book by the British military, political and intellectual C. M. Woodhouse (1917-2001), “On Omens”, was published in English only once, in 1950, and included twelve ethnographic stories of his adventures in Greece. However, as it turned out, there were not twelve stories, since two more were later discovered, which Greek readers have the opportunity to read for the first time in the appendix of this publication.
Fourteen ethnographic stories, then, written with plenty of British phlegm, on the border between fiction and history. Set mainly in the mountains of Roumeli, before and after the historic sabotage at Gorgopotamos, the undisputed pinnacle moment of the united National Resistance. Stories that testify to the truth of the Greek people, the suffering they suffered, but also the admirable self-denial and resourcefulness they demonstrated during the Occupation. Woodhouse offers us an enjoyable and at the same time codified historical document, setting before us a vivid and complex social universe, with elements of both comedy and drama.
It describes a people who try by all means to survive; who treat the representatives of the Great Powers with respect; who bravely tread the line between life and death, amidst political stakes that they often do not understand; a people who unite under a strong common denominator: “It is a noble sign to defend one’s homeland.”