ANGUS REID urges us to understand the persecution of Jason Arday from a political and historical perspective, and to see the victim in human terms
The curious adventures of ‘Robin Hoodkostas’
Vassilis Palaiokostas and, in the background, Athens' Korydallos prison from where he escaped in a helicopter
[Pics: Tsiros/CC and Freedom Press]
Re-releases of the classics Gypsy Rhumba and Buena Vista Social Club, and a stunning album by Palestinian artist Faris Ishaq
Nothing, says ANDY HEDGECOCK, can rescue this undistinguished amalgam of ponderous melodrama and shallow philosophical speculation
JAMIE BRITTON invites readers to visit 3,500 locals as part of a marathon artistic pub crawl
JOHN GREEN welcomes a valuable and incisive analysis of a world become hyperpolitical but without the mass movement institutions to represent it
A Normal Life
by Vassilis Palaiokostas
Freedom Press £15
“HOW can you slow down when you’re driving a Lada Niva on a wet highway, and there’s a deadly roadblock in front of you?” writes Greek bank robber and fugitive Vassilis Palaiokostas, describing how he raced towards the cops at full throttle in the rain.
“Obviously, the Bolsheviks had never imagined car chases in Parga, Epirus [north-west Greece] when they revolted. The Lada, communist feat that it was, was not made for such dangerous missions.”
After zooming past the roadblock at 75mph, soaking the cops in the processes, Palaiokostas saw four police officers take off after him in an Alfa Romeo.
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