A minute with: Alexia Solomou Poet

Where do you live?
I live in Limassol, close to the beach.

What did you have for breakfast?
A green apple

Describe your perfect day
On a yacht cruising the Mediterranean or the Caribbean sea.

Best book ever read?
The Beloved by Rumi because it very densely, simply and elegantly summarises the essence of our existence.

Best childhood memory?
Eating jam directly from the jar underneath the kitchen table out of sight of my parents!

What is always in your fridge?
Tonic water

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
Classical, jazz, hip-hop, depending on my mood.

What’s your spirit animal?
I don’t have one. I like horses a lot though for their elegance.

What are you most proud of?
Living in New York City for a year, where I had the opportunity to study at Columbia University and eventually to work at the UN.

What movie scene has really stayed with you?
The scene where the protagonist reads a book to an illiterate woman in The Reader.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
William Shakespeare and he would read out his sonnets to me all evening.

If you could time travel when/where would you go?
I would go back to the golden Classical era in ancient Greece and I would watch all the dramas written by Euripides and Sophocles. And perhaps have a conversation with Socrates.

What is your greatest fear?
Losing my family. The loss of beloved family members has been the greatest burden I have been called to bear in life.

What would you say to your 18-year-old self?
Relax, not work so hard and enjoy life!

Name the one thing that would stop you dating someone
Stupidity. Intelligence is sexy.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
I’d go to La Scala in Milan and watch operas back to back.