Falling in Honey: How a Tiny Greek Island Stole My Heart (Travel Memoir)

From Booklist Barclay first visited the tiny Greek island of Tilos with friends, including a lover with promising prospects. In her mid-thirties when those prospects fell apart, she never forgot the appeal of the island with its breathtaking views and population of 500, far outnumbered by goats. Emotionally adrift, she makes herself three pledges, gifts to herself: cut back on work, take a six-month hiatus from relationships to reconnect with herself, and spend a month in Tilos. She immerses herself in the Greek culture, food, language, and dance she so loves. Emotionally healed and recharged, she returns to England, where she meets a man who wants what she wants, a future with children and maybe a life on that tiny Greek island. But all of her careful precautions against heartbreak and preparation for her life-changing move don’t preclude the disaster she faces. Barclay’s beautiful memoir recalls both Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (2006) and the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, providing glimpses into the lives of people in a small Greek village and the process of healing from a broken heart. --Vanessa Bush "They say Eat Pray Love is the epitome of what engaging memoir writing should be... they obviously hadn't read Falling In Honey!...Raw, poignant, so very honest it makes you reel because you just don't expect people to be so honest and baring their soul out like this in 'public', this read captivated me...if there's one book I were to recommend as THE book of 2014, it would be Falling In Honey. " ― Zee Monodee "Five honey dipped stars...prepare to get hungry with a need to travel (or Google Greece to daydream). This is a perfect book for lounging on the beach, or for helping you pretend that you are during the winter. Fans of books like Eat, Pray, Love and Karma Gone Bad ought to check this out." ― Bitches n Prose "Barclay’s beautiful memoir recalls both Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (2006) and the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, providing glimpses into the lives of people in a small Greek village and the process of healing from a broken heart." ― Booklist "Captured with beautiful words that paint a serene picture of life in Greece. If you also want to fall in love with Greece, I highly recommend Falling in Honey : How a Tiny Greek Island Stole My Heart." ― Jetsetera "Light and lively reading with an understated edge." ― Kirkus Reviews "Jennifer speaks to women everywhere in this memoir. How many of us I have dreamed of giving everything up to run away to a deserted island? After reading this book, maybe my trip isn’t as far fetched as I thought" ― Cayocosta72 "A lovely read, made me want to run away to a Greek island." ― Helena Frith Powell, author of All You Need to Be Impossibly French "The descriptions of Tilos are lovely, and her experiences there are generally fun...it is a pleasant and easy read and would be ideal for taking away on a holiday." ― The Garden Window "There are twists and turns aplenty in this book, and while the course of love is not always sweet, the honey overtones of a magical island persist." ― Food & Travel "Jennifer is a very evocative writer you can almost smell the honey, the salty sea, the goats. Along with the evocative smells the reader get a warts and all summary of some disastrous relationships that drives her to the very edge – and each time it is Greece in general and Tilos in particular that brings her back and heals her mental wounds." ― Sally From Oz "I really loved it and was sad when I finished it. A real pleasure." ― Jane Johnson, author of The Tenth Gift and The Sultan's Wife "I got totally sucked into the simplicity and mystique of the tiny Greek Island of Tilos. Every time I sat down and opened it I felt like I was on vacation...Thank you Jennifer Barclay, for transporting me across the country and igniting an excitement to one day visit this tiny island that just months ago I had never heard of! " ― Lipstick and Leopard Print Jennifer Barclay grew up in a village in the north of England. After studying English at Oxford, she worked as an English teacher in Greece, a literary agent in Canada, a freelance editor in France and editorial director of a publishing company on her return to England. Her travels in many countries inspired her to write a first book, Meeting Mr Kim, as well as stories in newspapers, magazines and websites. In 2011, she moved to the tiny Greek island of Tilos, where she now works from home surrounded by mountains and sea, and wrote the book Falling in Honey. Read more