"This is not where you would expect an article about one of the Mediterranean's most beautiful islands to start. It's the tail end of winter, 2021. Kensal Green Cemetery in west London: the imperial mausolea canted and crumbling, low clouds dissolving into rain. We are still in that strange phase of the pandemic when we are masked, newly aware of our bodies and the space around them. We are here to bury Nikos, a man who for me, for many, was the incarnation of Corfu."
"I hadn't yet walked the Liston, the elegant colonnaded arcade that might be Venice or Trieste, Bologna or Perugia were it not for the cricket pitch laid out in front of it. The pitch is surrounded by a car park; its groundsmen battle heat, salt spray, digging children and fouling dogs. Yet it remains the only cricket pitch in the world I know that's set within a Unesco world heritage site."
Winter 2021 funeral at Kensal Green Cemetery presents a grey, rain-soaked atmosphere with pandemic awareness. A long search for an ideal Greek island culminates in discovering Corfu through a cricket invitation. Corfu's strategic history produced a culture fused from Greek, Venetian and British influences. The Liston arcade appears Venetian yet overlooks a cricket pitch set within a UNESCO World Heritage site. The pitch endures environmental challenges and sits beneath the Old Fortress and the Palace of St Michael and St George, which convey solidity and elegance. A Lord's Taverners visit included former internationals, actors, entertainers and writers.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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