Helen Vatsikopoulos in conversation with Maria Hill about her book

Diggers and Greeks: The Australian Campaigns in Greece and Crete

Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, Sydney

Wednesday, 14th April 2010 / 6.30 for 7pm

Helen Vatsikopoulos

Dr Maria Hill is a military historian and is a Visiting Fellow UNSW@ADFA. She was born in Athens and came to Sydney at the age of three. Her father Theodore Costadopoulos, an industrial chemist from Pyrgos in the Peloponesse had arrived in Australia a few years earlier. Her mother Emilia born in Athens opened up her own dressmaking salon in Newtown. After completing high school Maria spent a gap year in Athens working at the Australian Embassy. Returning to Australia Maria graduated with honours in history from UNSW. She is the author with Ian Bickerton of Contested Spaces: the Historiography of the Arab-Israeli Conflict published by McGraw-Hill in 2003. Her current book that examines the relationship that was forged between Australian soldiers and their Greek allies during the Greek and Crete campaigns is the culmination of eight years of research and writing.

Helen Vatsikopoulos, Australian journalist and news presenter for SBS and ABC was born in Florina in northern Greece where her father, Petros, was a peasant farmer. Her mother, Victoria, who wanted
better things for her only child, organised the family
migration to Adelaide in 1965, when Helen was four.

Helen Vatsikopoulos has hosted Dateline current affairs program on SBS and Asia Pacific Focus on the ABC. Currently she is studying and lecturing at the University of Technology in Sydney. Her insight on Greece is reflected in her recent stories for Foreign Correspondent: Acropolis Now, where she tackled the contenious issue of the return of the Greek sculptures to the Acropolis, screened 5/11/2008 and Greek Tragedy dealing with the Greek Riots triggered by the shooting of a young Greek boy in Athens, shown on 26/6/2009.

Cost: $10/$7 conc. gleeclub welcome

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