Greek Island Inheritance

Michael Hollands last saw his father Reginald Ashton Hollands at the age of five, standing on a dockyard crane at the end of a pier in Durban, waving at the ship that would take the young Michael and his brother Terry away to a new life in New Zealand. As an adult, he rediscovers Reg and begins a correspondence with him, hoping that they will reunite at last – only to have his hopes dashed when his father passes away from a sudden stroke. Years later, he embarks upon a journey to make one last reconnection – a trip to a remote Greek island known as Skiathos, to claim a small plot of land his father had left behind. A touching story of a lost father-son relationship and the attempt to restore a sense of belonging, this story was to have formed part of a complete autobiography that remained unfinished when Michael Hollands himself passed away suddenly in 2010. These chapters are published in his memory.