Wherever I travel, Greece wounds me

Louis de Bernieres charts his fascination with Greece, beyond having gotten a world-beating bestseller out of the place: "I had sworn never to go back to Greece but realised eventually that there had to be an exorcism. I spent a blissful two weeks on my own in a lovely part of Corfu, sunbathing naked at the end of a long deserted beach. I befriended Nikos, a Greek waiter who was really a farmer, and he eagerly encouraged my enthusiasm for the music that he played every night in his taverna.

He wrote down the names: Hadjidakis, Xarhakos, Theodorakis... I was to discover that for years Greece had enjoyed the best quality popular music in the world because all the best composers were setting to music the lyrics of the best poets. It was something that cannot be imagined in Britain, where our composers are all up their own backsides trying to impress other composers, and the poets won't or can't write lyrics. Through the music I got to the poetry - Seferis, Sikelianos, Cavafy, Elytis, Ritsos, Gatsos - and their writing has become so much a part of my intellectual and literary framework that I cannot now imagine living without it. I don't think we have anything to equal them." Plus, the Observer selects 15 places to stay in the cutely-titled "My big fat Greek bedding."