Rupert Brooke, buried on Skyros island in 1915, could not have known, what the island would later become for so many writers, artists and creative thinkers.
Brooke was an English poet, best known for his First World War poem ‘The Soldier’. He died on his way to the Gallipoli campaign and was buried on Skyros, where his grave still rests in an olive grove. For many visitors, that grave offers a quieter, more reflective way into the island itself.
Because going to Rupert Brooke’s grave is not only about literary history.
It’s also a way into Skyros.
The walk takes you away from the obvious and into another side of the island, barer, quieter, and full of its own atmosphere. You notice the shape of the land, the light, the stillness, and the sense that this is a place with memory in it. It shows you that Skyros is not only beautiful. It has depth, character and a life of its own.
The blog opens the door to another side of the island and to the wider creative history that later grew there.
👉 Read the guest blog on finding Rupert Brooke’s grave on Skyros
Long before Skyros Holidays, long before the Writers’ Lab, Skyros already had the qualities that make people stop and pay attention. The sea, the pine trees, the picturesque hills, the village streets, and the feeling that the day has room in it. Thoughts settle there. Conversations go a bit deeper there. Things that feel muffled at home often come back into focus.
That was the setting Yannis Andricopoulos and Dina Glouberman recognised when they founded Skyros Holidays.
They did not simply bring people to a beautiful Greek island. They understood that Skyros could hold something more. Journalist and author Yannis Andricopoulos and psychologist and author Dina Glouberman built a programme that worked with the island’s depth and atmosphere, rather than against it. They created a place where writing, creativity and personal exploration were taken seriously.
That is why names such as Hilary Mantel, Sue Townsend, Wendy Cope, Hanif Kureishi and Andrew Motion became part of the Skyros story. Not because the island somehow developed a literary reputation on its own, but because a serious, thoughtful creative programme was built there over many years.
There is Skyros the island: beautiful, distinct and full of character.
And there is Skyros Holidays: the creative programme that Yannis Andricopoulos and Dina Glouberman began building there in 1979, with depth, imagination and warmth.
Put those together, and you have the story of why Skyros has meant so much to so many writers, poets and imaginative people over the years.
👉 You can explore Skyros holiday dates and find the week that suits you here