George Gordon Lord Byron 

'Between Suliote chiefs, German barons, English volunteers

and adventurers of all nations, we are likely to form as goodly an allied army

as ever quarrelled beneath the same banner...''    - Missolonghi, 1824

NEARLY TWO CENTURIES AGO LORD BYRON GAVE HIS LIFE IN THE STRUGGLE

to wrest Greece from an oppressive occupying Caliphate – the Ottoman Empire.

With narration by Benjamin Zephaniah, songs by Brindaband,

and dialogues from contemporary accounts. A great story of courage and perseverence,

shot through with Byron's unique personality which threw out witticisms,

profundities and noble sentiments in equal measure. Watch here

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Featuring songs

from 'Courageous Heart: seven Byronic songs'

Byron's residence in Pisa, the Palazzo Lanfranchi (centre).

'I have got into a famous old feudal palazzo, on the Arno, with dungeons below and cells in the walls,

large enough for a garrison, and so full of Ghosts that the learned Fletcher (my valet) has begged leave to change his room,

and then refused to occupy his new room, because there were more ghosts there than in the other'. (Letter to John Murray 4.12.1821)

See also the essay 'Byron and Islam' for some reflections on the poet's relationship with Islam and Islamic culture.