Born in the UK, Author Jennifer Barclay lives in the Greek islands. Read on to learn more about her and her work.
Q&A with Jennifer Barclay
Jennifer Barclay had long dreamed of living in the Greek islands. She and her faithful dog Lisa are now living that dream. Read on.
ABOUT JENNIFER BARCLAY
Where are you from? Tell us a little about you.
I’m originally from the north of England, grew up in a village in the Pennine hills and went to grammar school in the town of Oldham, where I studied Ancient Greek. After reading English at Oxford, I taught English in Athens, travelled in Guyana, lived and worked in Canada for a decade, travelled in Asia, had a couple of years in France and then in the south of England… And finally, I came to live on the Greek island of Tilos and have found my home, where I’m obsessed with walking, the sea and my dog.
Do you write full time or do you have a “day” job? Tell us about your work.
I have worked in book publishing from my early twenties, first for a literary agency in Toronto, as a freelance editor and then as editorial director for a publishing company in the south of England, and I continued that line of work after moving to Greece. Now I’m not so interested in keeping up with the publishing industry or spending more than a few hours a day at a desk, but I enjoy working creatively with writers and find it inspiring, though I block off time to work on my own writing.
When did you start writing?
As a child. And I received a lot of encouragement. When I left university, I thought I might become a journalist like my dad, but one terrifying interview with a newspaper made it clear I wasn’t cut out for that. So I went to Greece to have adventures.
How did you get into writing?
After seven years of working for a literary agency in Toronto, I quit my job to travel, deciding to go to South Korea with my boyfriend who was a drummer in a band. That was in 2000, long before South Korean culture became wildly popular. While my boyfriend was playing music, I travelled around the country alone having strange, funny and amazing experiences, and the stories that emerged got published in a newspaper and an anthology and eventually became my first book, Meeting Mr Kim.
TRAVEL TO GREECE
When did you visit Greece for the first time?
I came to Greek islands on holiday with my parents as a child, and into my teens, and travelled around the Peloponnese with a friend at uni.
When did you start dreaming of living in Greece?
I didn’t know what to do with my English degree, failed three interviews for completely different jobs, then was offered a job teaching English in Greece. I taught in Athens for a year, travelling to islands on weekends and holidays, and found a summer job in a tiny hotel in Oia, Santorini. After that, I left and only came back for occasional holidays, but I had a recurring dream of living on a little Greek island.
WRITING ABOUT GREECE
What made you choose to write about your experiences in Greece?
Certain experiences just turn into stories that are asking to be written. Around the age of forty, I realised I needed to do something to make life happier, and after making some changes I eventually decided to move to a tiny Greek island. There were some real twists and turns along the way, and moments of discovery and sheer joy, and I hoped it might encourage other people to reach out for what makes them happy.
What inspires you?
The extraordinary people and wild landscapes.
BOOKS
How many books have you published?
Five in total, four about Greece. I have to remind myself sometimes that it’s quite an amazing thing.
When did you publish the first book about Greece?
In 2014. I had started writing that book, Falling in Honey, before I moved to Tilos, and completed it during the first year. An agent who agreed to take me on as a client and it was published in the UK, the US, Poland, Latvia and Bulgaria. Living on Tilos, I made more time to write and soon I had the makings of a second book about what it was really like to live my dream on a tiny island all year round, at an important moment in my life, and that became book two, An Octopus in my Ouzo.
Tell us about your other “Greek” books”.
After, I suddenly had the freedom to travel to other islands a little more, and I’d started getting fascinated with the places that were deserted when people left the islands, the remains of old farms and villages and harbours in remote places and the stories they told, and weird other things like the houses built for Cretan fishermen during the Ottoman occupation, and the villa built for Mussolini’s retirement during the Italian occupation. It eventually came together as a book called Wild Abandon: A Journey to the Deserted Places of the Dodecanese. Most of the journeys were done with my dog, Lisa.
Talk about your latest book.
It was during those years of looking for lost traditions in the Dodecanese that I went to Olympos in the north of Karpathos and was invited to go back and help for the summer at a taverna behind a remote beach in a valley filled with olives trees.
I went to Karpathos for a few days and ended up staying for a year and a half, living in the most amazing landscape but working flat out all summer – the way many Greek people do behind the scenes to make sure everyone has a lovely holiday – and dealing with the challenges and joys of running a business in such a remote place. For me it was also about leaving behind the serious world of responsibility and just living in a tent in a field, running through the fields with my dog to the beach. It was a mad adventure that I often wanted to last forever, and I wrote the story as Taverna by the Sea.
WRAPPING UP
Have you published anything other than books? (i.e. essay, short story, poetry, etc.)
Occasionally I get asked to write articles for magazines or newspapers – I’ve been published in a wide variety over the years! This year I had several travel articles about Greece published in The Guardian, a great opportunity to write about everything from winemakers to walking paths and really great places to stay.
What’s next for you?
I’m trying to pull together a new book about life on Tilos. I also want to publish some of my experiences on other islands and I want to write about my dog, Lisa, but I keep going for a walk to a beach with her instead. But my book Wild Abandon has been translated into Italian and so I’m hoping to have that published next year.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’m sitting in a hotel room on the island of Astypalea right now, with a lovely view of the castle and old town, but I can’t wait to get outside and see the sea…
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