Mario Panayi

Mario Panayi was born in the UK, but visited his relatives in Cyprus every year during his childhood. It was a very different Cyprus in the 1970s and early 1980s compared to now as Cyprus had been invaded in 1974. The visits he made to Cyprus were very influential on Mario, as he witnessed the aftermath of war such as refugees living in tiny accommodation, running water half a day per week which had to be stored for the whole week, no telephones, and of course more than 2,000 people had disappeared, presumed dead. This included two of his cousins.

It made Mario very conscious of how fortunate most people are in life, including himself, and how precious life is. He also forged a close relationship with his relatives in Cyprus.

Mario found that being told he couldn’t do things just made him more determined to be able to do things. At school a teacher refused to sign off his university application, explaining that there was no point applying to University because he was not capable academically of getting a degree and would probably not be accepted at University. He applied regardless and got two honours degrees, one postgraduate degree and two Masters degrees, including an MBA.

At a previous job he was told by his manager that he could not write. It was at that point he went on to get his final degree which was a BA (HONS) Philosophy and Creative and Professional Writing, but he never studied poetry. Mario has found that walking and writing is cathartic and therapeutic.

To date he has published fifteen books:

1 Birth, Life, Burial

2 Myths and Make-Believe

3 Do You Recognise Yourself?

4 Animal in You?

5 Glimpses of Epic Greek Myths

6 What Drink Are You?

7 Political Perspectives

8 Selections 2021/22 Edition

9 What Cake or Dessert Are You?

10 What Flower, Bush or Tree Are You?

11 What Fruit Are You?

12 Worst Cook Book EVER

13 Book 13: Luck

14 Everything butt the Kitchen Sink

15 Clothes and Friends

And he has also published 16 books in his Bitesize Series.

All are available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats.