Meet Jennifer Barclay

The First Digital Nomad?

I first came across the work of Jennifer Barclay when I reviewed her first book, Meeting Mr Kim, about her time living in South Korea. It was a wonderful read from a talented writer.

After a conventional job in publishing, Jennifer upped sticks and went to live on the little island of Tilos in the Dodecanese. I’ve been there a few times and can understand the attraction, though I’m not sure I could live in such a small place, despite how beautiful it is.

All Photos © Ian Smith

Jennifer has now written four books about Greece, the last two of which we’ve reviewed on our website: Wild Abandon and Taverna by the Sea. I thoroughly recommend them if you’re in need of a Greek fix, along with her earlier books, Falling in Honey and An Octopus in my Ouzo.

So I thought it would be interesting to interview Jennifer and find out about her life and her travels in Greece, something you won’t find on the website, an exclusive to our subscribers. So here goes…

Where and when did you first visit Greece?

I have a travel diary from a holiday to Corfu in 1980 – I was eleven.

Did you fall for the country instantly?

I don’t remember it, but it seems so, from the diary – it mentions the heat, vines and olive trees and washing hanging outside whitewashed or stone houses. I was also particularly impressed by the lemonade (‘much nicer than English’) and the price of sweets, the beach and the music and Greek dancing.

All the family loved Greece so in my teenage years I visited Rhodes and Cephalonia and Crete, started visiting ancient sites and meeting Greek boys (much nicer than English…). By then I was studying Ancient Greek at school and had a brilliant eccentric teacher who taught me bits of modern Greek language. 

Did you always want to be a writer?

I liked reading and writing and received lots of encouragement, but I don’t remember any dreams of being a writer for a living. While at university I did some journalism on student publications and work experience on a newspaper my dad wrote for, and after I graduated I interviewed for a journalism job, but it was a complete disaster. So I answered an advertisement for English teachers in Greece, and went to have some adventures. I hopped onto ferries to islands on the weekends and by the summer I was working in a hotel in Oia, Santorini, wearing a swimsuit and then helping a family with their grape harvest in Lipsi.

How did your first Greece book come about?

I started working in book publishing in my early twenties in Canada, and learned about writing books through working for a literary agency, but had no time for my own writing.

After I quit that first publishing job, I spent a few months travelling around South Korea and wrote stories about my travel experiences that got published in newspapers. When I moved back to the UK and got a job with Summersdale Publishers, I learned more about travel narratives and eventually published a book about South Korea, Meeting Mr Kim, which was very well received although few people were interested in Korea back then.

A few years after that, I was feeling unhappy with life and knew I needed to change something. Greece had always made me happy, so decided to give myself a gift of a month on the little island of Tilos, two weeks holiday and two weeks working from there. My love of Greece and dream of living on a Greek island had never gone away over the years. That was the start of my first book about moving to Greece, Falling in Honey. I had no idea of the twists and turns that journey would take. 

Do you still work for Summersdale, and did they have any problem with you working from Tilos?

I had decided to leave for Tilos with or without a job, for reasons that become clear in the book, but I had tried working from there and shown it worked well. I wouldn’t be able to do the same job – editorial and rights director, leading the editorial team – but I could still be a commissioning editor, and they offered me a contract. It worked well for a couple of years, but then something didn’t feel right and I wasn’t able to fix it. In 2013 I started my own editing and agency business, Jennifer Barclay Books, which allowed me more freedom.

In that respect you were probably one of the first pre-pandemic digital nomads, weren't you? A digital nomad before there even was such a phrase?

Very much so! I’d already worked as a freelance editor and writer from the south of France from 2003 to 2005. Back then I’d had to go to internet cafes with those little square ‘floppy disks’. By the time I moved to Tilos in 2011, I had Wifi and there was Skype for meetings and Gotomypc.com to access my office email. But I still kept quiet about working remotely, worried people wouldn’t take me seriously. Most people sitting in their offices didn’t want to know I’d spent lunchtime at the beach. And some people who did know I was working from a Greek island still thought I’d retired to start my own vineyard.  

Are you now settled on Tilos?

Yes, very happily. I love my life on a little island surrounded by nature. When I finish work I can just walk off into the hills with my dog or go for a swim. I’m never bored – it’s very fulfilling, with every season bringing something different – and I feel part of a community. In 2018 I decided to take another leap, sell my old flat in the UK and buy a house on Tilos. I now have a garden with fig trees and olives and vines and a few vegetables. I’m always reading, writing, walking, learning. And travelling to other islands.  

Apart from Tilos, where are your favourite places in Greece?

Tilos is in the middle of the group of islands called the Dodecanese in the South Aegean, so I have a pretty amazing neighbourhood and I love exploring the other small islands within a few hours by ferry – Symi, Halki, Nisyros – which are all so different. After a month on Astypalea in the autumn I didn’t want to come home. My third book about Greece, Wild Abandon, took me all around the Dodecanese exploring its abandoned places, and that’s still a bit of an obsession. I lived in the north of Karpathos for a year and a half (which I wrote about in Taverna by the Sea) and that’s still a very special place to me.

When possible I prefer to travel with my dog, Lisa, so that determines where we go – I haven’t spent much time in mainland Greece or in Crete for years because it’s hard to travel with a dog on buses and trains. But most islands reveal wonderful secrets if you really explore them, especially on foot. I like to travel out of season and find accommodation that’s reasonably priced. We spent a month in the Small Cyclades two winters ago, and last winter spent a month on Tinos, and found it hard to leave. The simple taverna food in the Cyclades is so good, and some islands such as Amorgos still have a very traditional way of life.  

I was recently asked by one of our website visitors how safe it would be for her travelling as a single woman in Greece. What would you say?

Greece has very low crime compared to many countries and it must be one of the safest places in the world to travel as a single woman, if you’re sensible (avoiding certain city neighbourhoods, for example, or wild partying in the notorious international resorts). I certainly haven’t encountered problems for a very long time. The main danger is that you might fall in love and never go home.

Do you have any more books in the pipeline?

It makes me very happy to think that not only have I fulfilled my dream of living on a little Greek island, but I’ve also published four books about life on Greek islands, and regularly receive lovely messages from readers, some of whom have come to Tilos after reading my books. So I can’t imagine giving up writing books – I’m always writing. I’m just not quite sure yet what will be next.

I’ve been writing a blog called An Octopus in my Ouzo (also the title of my second book about Greece) since moving here, so there’s lots more about my life and travels there. Thanks for inviting me onto Greece Travel Secrets, Mike! And to your readers, happy travels…

And if that doesn’t make you want to go to Greece this year, nothing will!

Mike and Donna

Greece Travel Secrets