Books
Βιβλία
Diplomatis
Merikis Apascholisis
«Διπλωμάτης Μερικής Απασχόλησης» · “Part-Time Diplomat” — a humorous narrative essay, in Greek
The book follows a blogger from Fokionos Negri street in Athens all the way to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From there — a borrowed Canon around his neck, like a tourist on safari — he boards government jets to Belgrade and Pristina and watches the Balkans’ road to “European and Euro-Atlantic integration”.
Almost by accident, he finds himself in meetings with World Bank officials, among foreign ministers on the sidelines of summits, and walking the famous “aisle of diplomacy” in the UN supermarket.
Through vivid episodes and with a humorous eye, an unlikely “diplomat” compiles daily international press reviews, sets up the Ministry’s first social media accounts and learns every acronym, metonym and abbreviation — and, most importantly, when a word absolutely needs quotation marks.
While writing the book, the author had the honour of talking with Ambassador Daniel Fried, former US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
All bookshops in Greece & Cyprus →
Watch the book launch
IANOS bookshop, Athens · Thursday 24 September 2026
Speakers: Meletis Meletopoulos, Pythagoras Petratos, Panagiotis Papachatzis and the author · Chair: Evryanna Karaglani
The Dictionary of
Favouritism & Corruption
«Το λεξικό του Ρουσφετιού και της Κομπίνας» · in Greek
The first satirical dictionary of Greek favouritism and graft — 270 wry definitions of the words behind a way of life.
After six years studying in England, Gkinopoulos came home and spent eighteen months job-hunting through a system that ran on favours. The 270 words he collected along the way became this dictionary.
About the author
Ο συγγραφέαςVasileios Gkinopoulos (Vasilis) was born and lives in Athens, Greece. His name is also transliterated as Vasilis Gkinopoulos or Vasileios Ginopoulos.
He studied in London — a degree in Marketing at the University of North London and a master’s in Management at City University — and attended seminars and executive programmes at the London School of Economics, Birkbeck, University of London, the World Bank Institute in Washington DC and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He works in the private sector as a new product development and strategic marketing manager, focusing on business development, sales and embedding sustainability in commercial strategy.
At the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a special adviser on digital and public diplomacy, he launched the first official social media accounts of Greek diplomacy, and was seconded for a year to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. At the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT), as a communications specialist and community manager, he launched the organisation’s official blog.
He has worked with tourism start-ups and in community management in New York and San Francisco, and in software development took an active part in the go-to-market strategy of an educational robot in Austin, Texas. He has lived and worked in London, Vienna, New York, San Francisco and Austin.
Full biography (in Greek) →