0:00:04 > 0:00:07Victoria Hislop has been having a long love affair with Greece
0:00:07 > 0:00:10and her bestselling novels have led her army of readers
0:00:10 > 0:00:13from island to island and into the Greek experience.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16In Cartes Postales, she takes a new step: you see the pictures,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18from the mysterious postcards that begin to arrive one
0:00:18 > 0:00:22by one for Ellie from...
0:00:22 > 0:00:25She knows not by whom at the start.
0:00:25 > 0:00:32And it is the story of a journey of discovery to Greece and its past,
0:00:32 > 0:00:34its culture, its whole history that unravels the secrets of the cards.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Welcome.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54This is a novel about postcards, or at least it begins
0:00:54 > 0:00:57with the arrival of postcards.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59And we actually see them on the page!
0:00:59 > 0:01:04Now, what made you decide to do that?
0:01:04 > 0:01:07I wanted to give my readers real, live images of Greece.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10When I'm researching I always take a lot of photographs myself,
0:01:10 > 0:01:15so when I'm back in England writing I'm surrounded by them.
0:01:15 > 0:01:16You put them on your wall?
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Desk?
0:01:18 > 0:01:19Put them on the wall!
0:01:19 > 0:01:23I print them out in a very old fashioned way.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24So you're in Greece?
0:01:24 > 0:01:25I am in Greece!
0:01:25 > 0:01:29I thought why can't I share images of Greece
0:01:29 > 0:01:31with the people who read my books?
0:01:31 > 0:01:32Why not?
0:01:32 > 0:01:33The idea for the story...
0:01:33 > 0:01:36Did it come from this notion you wanted to show pictures?
0:01:36 > 0:01:37Yes.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40In other words it was that way round, rather than the other?
0:01:40 > 0:01:41Absolutely.
0:01:41 > 0:01:42It was the starting point.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45And then the idea of postcards as a linking thing, the journey
0:01:45 > 0:01:50of this poor broken hearted man around the country...
0:01:50 > 0:01:56Sending these postcards back, that sort of grew organically out of it.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59In effect it is a mystery story in part, it's also a story
0:01:59 > 0:02:08about loss and inability to manage emotions I suppose.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12You talk about this man, wandering in a sense aimlessly?
0:02:12 > 0:02:13He is.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17And very few people ever have the opportunity
0:02:17 > 0:02:20to go on this aimless...
0:02:20 > 0:02:23In a sense it's aimless, but he needs to recover himself.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25In that case, why is he so interesting to us?
0:02:25 > 0:02:26Why do we care about him?
0:02:26 > 0:02:30I'm glad you do!
0:02:30 > 0:02:33If you didn't you wouldn't finish the book!
0:02:33 > 0:02:38For me I wanted to write about a man experiencing these emotions,
0:02:38 > 0:02:44because I think a lot of books I read written by women tend more
0:02:44 > 0:02:46to explore the woman who's been dumped and y'know...
0:02:46 > 0:02:54How she survives that.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57And I think certainly my hope is that as he moves
0:02:57 > 0:03:03through the months of this journey, we see a change in him.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06I suppose that's the cliche of writing a novel.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08It's a journey revealed to us very slowly.
0:03:08 > 0:03:14Yes.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16It's an emotional journey, a real journey, and the girl receiving
0:03:16 > 0:03:20the postcards he's sending, she begins to follow behind him.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22Piece it together.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24From a great distance.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25Yes.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Always an alluring thing.
0:03:28 > 0:03:35I'm writing about Greece and I always if I put this man in,
0:03:35 > 0:03:40let's say, Harrogate town centre to start this journey
0:03:40 > 0:03:41to recover his sense of worth...
0:03:41 > 0:03:51Whether he eventually would.
0:03:52 > 0:03:53Maybe I should do it!
0:03:53 > 0:03:54But Greece, to me...
0:03:54 > 0:03:57The landscape that you find in Greece, the people that
0:03:57 > 0:03:59meet and befriend you, there's always something to be
0:03:59 > 0:04:00felt and be learned.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02There have been many novels over the years,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04going back to Lawrence Durrell and famous Captain
0:04:04 > 0:04:05Corelli and so on.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07It's happened before.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11But there is something that draws people in to the history
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and the culture and customs of Greece?
0:04:15 > 0:04:16Yes.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18And actually for me, the 20th century history
0:04:18 > 0:04:24of Greece is so fascinating, complex and full of drama.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27It provides me with endless ideas.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30The book I've just started to write.
0:04:30 > 0:04:31And tragedy, of course.
0:04:31 > 0:04:32Much tragedy.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Every ten or 15 years in Greece - there's something fairly
0:04:35 > 0:04:36spectacular that happens, whether it's occupation,
0:04:36 > 0:04:45civil war or an earthquake.
0:04:45 > 0:04:46Economic collapse.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Last but not least!
0:04:49 > 0:04:52And all of these things have a huge effect on the human
0:04:52 > 0:04:56history of a place.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59How a family manages to survive all these catastrophic things
0:04:59 > 0:05:01that take place there.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02Yes.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06It is a story about resilience, in a way?
0:05:06 > 0:05:07It is.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09The Greeks do survive.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Right now, you think how do people really manage
0:05:12 > 0:05:16on 400, 500 Euros a month?
0:05:16 > 0:05:18What's your answer to that?
0:05:18 > 0:05:22One of the big factors is the importance of the family.
0:05:22 > 0:05:29You're very rarely living 1,000km away from your grandma, aunts.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31The old networks are still there?
0:05:31 > 0:05:36Absolutely.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39And the sadness about what's happening now in the 21st century
0:05:39 > 0:05:41is that so many young people are moving out of Greece
0:05:41 > 0:05:45to find work, find a life.
0:05:45 > 0:05:51So I hope that they will go back eventually, and most
0:05:51 > 0:05:53of the young people who I meet who are Greek, at university,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55or have careers here, actually dream about going back
0:05:55 > 0:05:59to Greece - that everything will get better.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02It's a great tribute in a way to the power of the place?
0:06:02 > 0:06:03I think so.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08It still offers so much that doesn't actually get damaged by the economy.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11What's it given you over the years?
0:06:11 > 0:06:12Great question.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15More or less all my inspiration.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19I can't really step off the plane before I'm thinking
0:06:19 > 0:06:21of an idea for a story.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Very much inspiration.
0:06:24 > 0:06:25And why do you think that is?
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Is it the richness of the...
0:06:28 > 0:06:30The texture of the place?
0:06:30 > 0:06:32I think, yes.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36This vein of history I feel that I've never really explored,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39even in my own country.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41I think I know more about the history of Greece
0:06:41 > 0:06:45in the 20th century than Britain.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47And the pictures are yours?
0:06:47 > 0:06:51They're taken by a photographer who I travelled with.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Taken on your own travels?
0:06:54 > 0:07:03Simultaneously with the travels.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Which was a very exciting way to work.
0:07:05 > 0:07:06Most were images, sites, totally unexpected.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Most were images, sites, totally unexpected.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12For example, there's a ritual that happens every year
0:07:12 > 0:07:15on the 6th of January, a race to find a cross that's been
0:07:15 > 0:07:17thrown into the sea by a priest.
0:07:17 > 0:07:26And the day that happened, I knew nothing about it.
0:07:26 > 0:07:35So we travelled to somewhere on the west coast of Greece and that
0:07:35 > 0:07:38morning the bells were chiming from 6am till 10.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41So I went down into the town to explore, saw the waterfront
0:07:41 > 0:07:43and people gathered...
0:07:43 > 0:07:47The very first week of January, about 30 young
0:07:47 > 0:07:51men in their speedos, quite a cold day!
0:07:51 > 0:07:52What is this!?
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Then learned all about this tradition, swimming out
0:07:55 > 0:07:59for the cross on the day of the epiphany.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02So all those photos were unexpected, the story was unexpected,
0:08:02 > 0:08:10the mystery I imagined was not something I'd planned.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13But when it came along it seemed perfectly natural?
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Absolutely.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17All the stories, more or less, I wrote the beginnings of them
0:08:17 > 0:08:22in the car as we travelled from one place to another.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23It just came?
0:08:23 > 0:08:27Very much so.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31A source of inspiration, to travel!
0:08:31 > 0:08:33Which is how a story should come about.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Victoria Hislop, author of Cartes Postales,
0:08:35 > 0:08:36thank you very much.
0:08:36 > 0:08:46Thank you.