Whenever I travel between Turkey and Greece, my mind strays to the relationship between these two great historic nations. One that we are told, namely by politicians, is a fractured one and yet this has never been visible to me.

This relationship is ever more pertinent when you ferry between Ayvalik on the Turkish Aegean coast to Mitilini on the adjacent island of Lesvos, 22 miles away. With the two places looking distinctly similar I am reminded of the beautiful book, ” Birds without wings” written by Louis de Bernières in 2004.

Essentially, the book is a work of fiction about how tightly knit communities can be split along religious and national lines, when ‘pushed’ to do so by an outside influence. It is based upon the real life events of 1923. Where at the Treaty of Lausanne, (at the end of WW1 and collapse of the Ottoman Empire) a population exchange was triggered. 1. 2 million Christian Greeks would leave Turkey for Greece ( interestingly swelling the total Greek population by 20%) and 400,000 Muslim Turks left Greece bound for Turkey. In Lesvos alone 50,000 Greeks relocated to the island and 7000 Turks left.

There are many brilliant words in the book, but maybe my favourite, ” nationalism and religion as the unholy spouses from whose fetid conjugal bed nothing but evil can crawl forth”.

For my continued life in Turkey, this book was considered to be essential reading. Was this right? Was it so important to understand? Well, yes, it was. Not only can I still easily bring the text and its themes to the forefront of my mind, but it also resonates in my everyday life. Of the softness and humility of both the Greeks and the Turks, and how many likenesses they share.

The ‘birds without wings’ title also has irony because it is for birds – but birds with wings – that I am here on Lesvos. More on this soon.