Here is the Aegean, that ‘amalgam of peoples’, an archipelago of colours, tastes, civilizations, and history – in a panoramic album where the brilliant pictures say what words cannot express. The islands of the Cyclades and the Dodecanese, Crete, Evvoia, the Northern Sporades, the isles of the Saronic Gulf and the Eastern Aegean, the countless eyots and shoals, they are all there, in this ‘great little world’. Its origins are lost in myth. But it has produced two major civilizations (the Minoan and the Cycladic); it still reverently maintains its local traditions and customs; and it is reborn in the act of preserving and moulding the legacy of its settlements. These are the islands displayed in this book. They are synonymous with sunlight and easeful summers; and they are printed on its pages with all the artistry and skill that they deserve.