Wild Abandon - Holiday reads and travel literature. Escape with seasoned travel writer Jennifer Barclay as she walks with her dog and her backpack exploring the deserted places of Greece's Dodecanese islands, including Tilos, Nisyros, Kos, Kalymnos, Astypalea, Rhodes, Kastellorizo, Halki, Karpathos, Kasos and Arki.
‘There's something about abandoned places which moves me and captures the imagination.' So says seasoned travel writer Jennifer Barclay as she walks with her dog and her backpack through the deserted spaces of the Dodecanese, islands that were once bustling but are now half forgotten and reclaimed by the wild due to a mix of misfortune and the lure of opportunity elsewhere. Join her on a journey through abandoned villages and farms, cave-houses and captains' mansions, the homes of displaced Muslim fishermen and poets, as she discovers beauty in the ruins, emptiness and silence, and inspiration in the stories of people's lives.
A long-term resident of Greece, Jennifer Barclay spent more than four years researching Wild Abandon, visiting islands multiple times and hearing the stories of local people. She travels from the very west to the very east of the Dodecanese, from the very south almost to the very north, taking in some of the smallest and the biggest islands, and highlighting different stories along the way to show the complex history behind these havens of tranquillity. She discovers a villa intended for Benito Mussolini's retirement, an island that links a gramophone from St Petersburg and a portrait in the American National Gallery via a pack of cigarettes, and reflects on the days when an economy based on sponges and burnt rock supported thousands.
She also learns of connections with America: the painter from Kalymnos whose self-portrait hangs in the American National Gallery and the man in Kasos who was supposed to be painting the World Trade Center on 9/11. Inside a trunk in an abandoned house she finds a note with a hand-written address in New York. And she hears of the diaspora who made America their home: those from Nisyros who moved to New York, from Karpathos who settled in Baltimore, and from Halki and other islands who make Tarpon Springs, Florida the city with the highest percentage of Greek Americans in the United States.
Wild Abandon is an elegy in praise of abandoned places and a search for lost knowledge through the wildest and most deserted locations.
"A vivid and intoxicating account of these beautiful islands" - Victoria Hislop.
"Jennifer Barclay takes the reader on a delightful serendipitous journey along paths less well trodden in the Dodecanese. She is an engaging travelling companion whose knowledge of and affection for the islands she holds dear shines through. Wild Abandon is a must read for anyone who loves the Greek Islands."
Richard Clark, author of The Lost Lyra and The Greek Islands Notebook.
"I loved it, it's a magical book; and so great to be taken beyond the tourist enclaves by someone who knows these islands and their history so well. Barclay travels and writes with wonderful energy, affection and honesty and I was transported by to the dusty tracks and into the cool waves with her and her dog Lisa. She travels with a brave freedom that so many of us will envy - a three-day journey to one island turning into a year and a half - and this allows her to dig beneath the surface and tell us the stories, the real stories, of these out-of-the-way places that take time to emerge. Highly recommended... " - Iain Campbell, author From the Lion's Mouth
"(Jennifer Barclay's) solitary wanderings, her constant contact with nature. and her attachment to simplicity and freedom render her book exceptionally timely." - Greece Is magazine
"Adored this absolute gem of a book. I dare you to read it and not immediately want to move to Greece."
Charlie Carroll, author of 'The Friendship Highway and The Lip'
"This is a beautiful and well researched book documenting in superb detail the rugged charm, changing landscape, and the tumultuous history of the Dodecanese islands. You can almost smell the wild oregano and taste the saganaki cheese. This is a must read for anyone visiting the area, and for anyone interested in modern Greek history."
Atulya K Bingham, The Mud Home blog
