Hello!

I already have my trip to Greece planned and my guide books. What I am now after is a suitable book to provide the greek history and background (i.e. myths, ancient history) as we are travelling around.

Has to be portable and it would be great if it was easy to read bits relating to areas we will be visiting (Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia...all the usual tourist places). But I want something more in depth than Eyewitness or guidebooks. Any suggestions?

I can't make a specific suggestion myself, but I use this guy as a resource for the things I need.

http://www.hellenicbookservice.com/

He's got everything nicely set up in categories, and, having once phoned them loking for something, they couldn't have been more helpful

The Blue Guides are usually what people choose if they are more interested in history and archaeology than beaches and nightlife. Check out the reviews in http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039...e&n=283155 to see if this is what youare looking for.

Not related to individual places and more than slightly idiosyncratic are Robert Graves' two volumes of "Greek Myths".

Related to individual places as they were in about 150 A.D. and enormously detailed about both the places and the myths connected with them are the two volumes of Pausanias' "Guide to Greece".

However, neither really qualifies as "easy to read bits".

I found Edith Hamilton's Mythology quite helpful for background on the myths. And not for carrying around, but for background, I found the Oxford History of Classical art very interesting.

You may be interested in my trip report, covering a few days in Athens and a mainland tour to Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae and the Meteora last March:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34589254

Thanks a lots everybody. I am now beavering away looking at all your suggestions. The blue guide sounds great! I'll be off to the bookshop early tomorrow!