Aim behind Klandestini project

I refer to the report "Klandestini launched to encourage the talent of writers in the Mediterranean" (0ctober 29).

I feel it is important to clarify the statement I made at the time of the press conference, since I am reported as having said that "those writing about Mediterranean culture hardly ever ventured beyond Tuscan villas, the countryside and palm trees".

This is, in fact, completely at variance to what I actually said and the point I was making, which was that my own impression is that the complex realities of contemporary Mediterranean culture, being voiced by young Mediterranean writers, are simply not being published, and are therefore not making it to the bookshelves of major international bookstores.

While a great deal of reading matter is available on life in Latin America, Africa - indeed, any part of the world - through works of globally renowned but locally conscious authors and poets, the same cannot really be said of the Mediterranean. A search through the bookshelves of any major British bookstore for an authentic voice speaking out for young Mediterranean people today can be very disappointing.

Where are the stories which deal with the deeper realities beneath the tourist-brochure gloss of Mediterranean towns ? Can this reality be considered only in the light of endless days in hammocks in beautiful Tuscan, Cretan or Gozitan farmhouses, as the Amazon book selector seems to suggest?

Does the wider world understand the tensions, frustrations, hopes and aspirations of the new generation of Mediterranean writers ? Indeed, can we even refer to Mediterranean writers as representing a specific genre? This in itself raises an all-important question - what does it take to make an international publisher aware of the scant attention at present being paid to the sometimes harsh realities of everyday living in the Mediterranean region?

Hence the Klandestini project, which seeks to bring together emerging writers from four Mediterranean countries, so that they are able to share thoughts, write down their ideas and eventually be provided with exposure to a wider audience.

The Klandestini project aims to address some of these very vital questions and this is precisely why the British Council, InizjaMed and St James Cavalier are so keen to work together on what we consider to be a very valuable project.