Clive Aslet

The Salonika Front is one of the forgotten theatres of the First World War. Salonika, now Thessaloniki, was an exotic city, Ottoman until 1912 and in any case largely occupied by Jews who still spoke a kind of Spanish, their families having left Spain in the 15th century.

Like Casablanca in the Second World War, Greece was neutral. But the Anglo-French army was stuck there for the duration, without leave. Upcountry was virtually a desert. Fighting was sporadic. What did the soldiers and nurses do to keep sane? This is a question explored in Clive Aslet’s new novel The Birdcage and will be the subject of his talk. War sometimes had a funny side.