Jennifer Barclay Books
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Taverna by the Sea
Published in 2022 in the UK and US
‘Sheer heaven’ – Isabelle Broom
‘A feel-good book to put you instantly in the holiday mood’ – Irini Tzortzoglou
This memoir transports you to the wilds of north Karpathos, halfway between Rhodes and Crete, where Minas runs a fish taverna in an olive grove behind an idyllic beach. I only planned a short trip to do some walking and swimming… I never expected to be offered a chance to go back and stay for the summer with my dog. The challenge of running a bar-restaurant in a remote place, living in a tent, is matched by the magic of the landscape and other joys life on a Greek island can bring.
If you were offered the chance to live by the sea for the summer at a remote taverna on a Greek island… would you take it?
‘One woman said yes to a delicious, exhausting adventure’ – Irish Independent
‘a wonderfully vivid account’ – Ingrid
‘Fantastic read, loved it’ – Chris
‘Absolutely loved it… the perfect book for our trip!’ – James and Marja
‘More than one traveller has dreamt of spending the summer working at a bar overlooking the Aegean. For her latest insight into Greek island life and culture, Jennifer Barclay does just that…’ – Wanderlust magazine
‘great holiday read… mouthwatering descriptions of the food and the joys of a swim off a deserted beach’ – Irish Examiner
Featured in Kathimerini magazine (in Greek), Traveller magazine and more
Excerpt:
I wake up in a panic: there’s a large fish in the tent with me.
Not alive, but on a platter, and customers outside waiting for it.
I sit up, anxious. It’s very dark. I can’t hear anyone. I realise I must have been dreaming again. It’s happening a lot, dreaming that I’ve forgotten an order during this busiest part of summer.
It felt like a dream so much of the time: living at a taverna by a beach far from anywhere, on a Greek island. It was a summer of waking to a pink dawn over the olive grove, swimming in moonlight, hearing only the waves or the wind; a kitchen full of creaming yoghurt and honey and tomatoes, olive oil and rosemary and fresh fish. There were days of music; days of no water; days with a goat tied to a tree.
‘Must be comfortable in beachwear,’ Minas had said, explaining what he wrote in his ads for waitresses in an attempt to get applications from attractive women – and sometimes it succeeded, though that summer the only people who came looking for work were Albanian men. It probably seemed too lonely for most people. For a while I wanted to stay forever…
The story started in late April, when I planned a few days of walking on an island I’d never visited before.