In the midst of the gloom of successive crises, I suddenly felt a strong need to breathe some fresh air, to feel optimistic. So, I decided that it was time to bring my idol, Dido Sotiriou, back to life. It is unfair for the older generations to gradually forget her and for the younger ones to completely ignore her. There was no one else like this woman-warrior of good who traversed the entire 20th century, found herself at the center of every Greek tragedy (from the Asia Minor Catastrophe to the junta), and managed to stride over all the ruins wearing her eternal smile, red beret, necklace, and perfume. I immediately began my research (which eventually inspired the book Couples Who Wrote the History of Greece) and fortunately, because in the meantime Alkis Zei and Nikos Beloyannis, the only surviving people who knew her inside out, passed away.

I hope that I wrote a completely hybrid biography with the characteristic title I Dreamed of Dido. Because indeed, I dreamed of her vividly, tireless and smiling, as she always was, narrating her wildly improbable life to me in great detail!

L. D.