Tales from Riding House Street

In Riding House Street in the West End of London, a young Greek Cypriot couple, Photis Evangelou and Vasilou Ktori, carved out a life for themselves through the Depression, World War II and into the Swinging Sixties. London’s burgeoning Greek Cypriot community also included Panagis, the `tough guy’ who wore a hair net, Panos, the boy with an alarming interest in chemistry, and enough aunts, uncles and cousins to fill a double-decker bus. In this vivid memoir, Helen Evangelou pays tribute to the enterprise and spirit of the Greek Cypriots, evokes the grit and glory of 20th-century London, and honours her indefatigable parents, for whom Cyprus and its magical beauty never stopped calling.

Author Biography

Helen Evangelou was born and raised in London’s West End. During her career in publishing and TV news she has worked for organisations such as Independent Television News (ITN), The Associated Press and Al Jazeera English. Helen has travelled extensively, spending time in Australia and in Cyprus, where she set up ITN’S Nicosia bureau during the Middle Eastern hostage crisis in the late 1980s. She now lives in Suffolk. This book is a tribute to her Greek Cypriot parents, who lived and worked in central London but whose dreams always took them back to Cyprus.