Sunshine and Shades is a pictorial and descriptive journey through the history and beauty of the Greek Paradise Island of Kefalonia in the blue Mediterranean Sea. Visit its tree covered hillsides and pretty villages that cascade down to the seashore. This really is a lovely Island. The magical Island of Kefalonia is one of Greece's most beautiful holiday destinations, every year thousands of tourists from all around the world visit its shores. The fame of this beautiful Island has increased world-wide over recent years. This was enhanced by Hollywood packing up and shipping out all their equipment and stars to Kefalonia, over ten years ago, to film the movie "Captain Corelli's Mandolin". On Kefalonia there are mountains that will dwarf you, beaches that could front a Caribbean postcard, and waters with more glitter and shine than the Hope diamond. The Island of Kefalonia or Cephalonia is known by many names and can be called Kefallinia or Kephallenia. It is the largest of the Ionian Island in western Greece. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Island region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. The capital of Kefalonia or Cephalonia is Argostoli. The largest of all the Greek Ionian Islands, Kefalonia, as we have seen, enjoys a number of different spellings, which include Kefallonia, Kefallinia and even Cephallonia. However you choose to spell or pronounce these variations of Kefalonia, they all mean one thing, a superb holiday destination, with a rugged inner mountain range and some quite outstanding beaches and cliffs, and even some remains of a past Roman era. The beaches of Kefalonia are those that most people only dream of and combined with the plentiful sunshine, provide the perfect setting for a very memorable holiday.
Alan was born in the city of Norwich in the county of Norfolk, England in November 1949. When Alan was still a teenager he started painting whilst attending art classes in Norwich. In his mid-teens he had two paintings accepted for a National Art Exhibition held in London and other major UK cities. Alan spent most of his working life as a professional Health and Safety Advisor and rarely picked up a paint brush until Alan, his wife Susie and daughter Ginny (his other daughter Mandy is married and lives with her husband Adrian in Sheffield) moved out of the city of Norwich into the countryside in 1993. They moved to a little village called East Lexham in the heart of Norfolk. The village was very peaceful and pretty. This helped inspire Alan to take up watercolour painting once again. In 2004 they moved to another small West Norfolk village near Downham Market where they still live today. In 2008 Alan had to retire due to ill health (bad knees) and whilst he still painted regularly he began to spend more and more time gardening. In 2013 his wife Susie suggested that he kept a gardening diary to record his adventures in the garden and capture the changing seasons, animals, birds and the successes and failures of being a gardener he encountered. By the following year Susie suggested that he should write a book from his diary and include illustrations of both the garden and his artwork. In 2014 Alan's first book was published by Creative Gateway called "Retiring to the Garden - Year One". This proved such a success that Alan decided to follow this up with his second book called "Retiring into a Rainbow" featuring his watercolour paintings. He then in 2015 published "Retiring to Our Garden - Year Two" published this time by Rainbow Publications UK. He then re-issued his first two books this time in a "Second Edition". Also published by Rainbow Publications UK. In 2016 he published: "Skiathos a Greek Island Paradise", "Norfolk the County of my Birth", "Art Inspired by a Rainbow", "Ibiza Island of Dreams", "Majorca Island in the Sun", "Flip-flops and Shades on Thassos" and finally "Mardle and a Troshin' in Norfolk". He has recently started on the following new books which will be entitled: "England the Country of my Birth", "Mousehole the Cornish Jewel", "Sunshine and Shades on Kefalonia", "Shades and Flip-flops on Zakynthos", "Crete and the Island of Santorini", "Cyprus the Pyramids and the Holy Land", "Corfu and Mainland Greece" ", "Trips into my Mind's Eye", "Flip-flops and Shades on many Greek Islands" and finally "Greece Land of Gods and Men". When completed they will also be published by Rainbow Publications UK.
