"How much does the personal life of the protagonists of history affect their political action and vice versa, how much does public exposure affect their household? This is what the book you are holding in your hands explores. Why is it difficult to understand the decisions of a public figure without knowing their unspoken needs, their traumas?
If you don't know what Belogiannis meant to Elli Pappa, how can you justify her decision to have his child, even though she was married to someone else, imprisoned and dying? How can you interpret Andreas Papandreou's destructive attitude towards the Center Union if you don't know the abyss that separated him from his father? And why did Pavlos let Frederiki become a queen of kings?

I chose to talk about couples because in love and cohabitation we are all exposed and naked, whole. Of course, I constantly heard the objection in my ears: How can I guess the dynamics of a couple, how can I summarize their light and darkness? However, doubt did not stop me, it simply nourished the charm of research. I immersed myself in their lives and literally loved them, trying to see through their eyes. I didn't just want to rummage through their drawers, I wanted to understand the limitations that society imposed on them at the time, to give flesh and bones to the cardboard figures of the front pages.

I chose the most influential couples, the most intense ones to cover the history of Greece from 1821 to the junta. The men, due to the era, are protagonists but the women in their lives are equally important, passionate figures.

I hope you enjoy this adventure as much as I did, between history and literature."

Lena Divani