You’re living a life that many of us would dream about, said Matt. It’s a life I dreamed about myself for long enough. Especially in the grey of winter I had a recurring dream of walking across the hills of a small Greek island, the deep blue sea down below. It got so familiar that I knew my way around it. I suppose it was based on all the Greek islands I’d been to, from family holidays when I was a teenager to the year I spent in Athens after university, to the places I’d discovered in recent years on late summer trips.

And then I had a particularly bad winter: my boyfriend left me unexpectedly, and a lot of plans and hopes crumbled. Just two months later, someone else I’d started seeing suddenly remembered he ‘didn’t do relationships’. I collapsed, a weeping wreck. I realised I needed to do something for myself, give my life a shake and find out whether I was living the life I really wanted. I booked myself a month on a tiny Greek island called Tilos where I’d spent a week before. It seemed a good place to spend time alone and refocus.

Tilos, in the hot and rugged Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea, is eight miles long by three miles wide. The population is about 500, the people far outnumbered by goats which roam wild. Rocky hillsides are dotted with chapels and bee hives. That month, every morning I glimpsed blue sky and hills and sea when I woke up and brushed my teeth. I held octopus and starfish in my hands. The joy of connecting with this wild place brought me back to life.

I also experimented with working from the island. I could do a lot of my job by email, and Tilos, in spite of being slightly remote, has good internet access. I felt better at my work when I could swim at lunchtime and walk off any stress in the evening. I started to think about a way to move here.

My work is finding, commissioning and editing books for an independent publisher based in a creaky, leaky Georgian house in Chichester. When I explain to people what I do, it sounds like the most amazing job in the world, and of course it can be, though like any work it has its share of headaches. Summersdale publishes all sorts of non-fiction books: gift, humour, health, stories about dogs and gardening and – well, as we like to say, ‘something for everyone’; but what originally drew me to the company and what inspires me most is the travel writing. We publish entertaining, informative and inspiring personal accounts of life-changing travel experiences. It has warped my perspective a little, because our authors are continually doing extraordinary things. Right now one is cycling and rowing around the world (Sarah Outen) and another is setting off on a solo expedition across Antarctica (Felicity Aston). I know people who have walked the Amazon and skateboarded across Australia. The idea of working from a Greek island doesn’t seem that strange if you look at it that way.

For almost seven years I’d been working from that office but I’d also been doing more and more travel writing myself, and it felt like time for a change. I told my boss I’d like to demote myself from Editorial Director and become a freelance Commissioning Editor focusing on travel and other quirky non-fiction: a job that can be done by email and Skype from a home office on a Greek island. And my lovely boss said yes.

So now I’m renting a pretty stone house next door to a little honey factory on Tilos, and I work from my kitchen table with a view of the mountains and the sea, amid the sound of bees and cockerels. Goats walk past my window. I buy vegetables straight from the farmer, and of course have an unlimited supply of delicious thyme honey. At night I can see the Milky Way. In spite of the Greek economy going to hell in a hand basket, I am blithely becoming more ensconced in island life. I’ve started teaching English to the schoolchildren two evenings a week, so when I walk through the square there are cries of Kyria! Hello Miss! I’ve therefore committed to staying here all winter, which has raised a few eyebrows. From November to April, most things shut down and many people leave. Some say it’s terribly quiet, others say it’s wonderfully tranquil. There’s only one way to find out. I am hoping for lots of time to read and to look after the winter vegetables in the garden.

I’ve been keeping a blog about life here (www.octopus-in-my-ouzo.blogspot.com), and a friend said many of the experiences have a timeless quality: going out on a fishing boat, dancing with the villagers at traditional festivals. There is certainly plenty to write about.

A few years ago I published a book called Meeting Mr Kim (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Meeting+Mr+Kim) about how I travelled around South Korea and fell in love with the country. I’m still blogging about the country via CoolstuffKorea on Facebook and Twitter. But now I’m writing a new book about my love of Greece, and about love and Greece. It’s tentatively entitled Greek Honey, and it will be out in July 2012 (I’ll be updating my blog page with information, so please sign up!).

If you’ve had an extraordinary adventure yourself and are thinking of writing a book about it, please check out our list at summersdale.com and drop me a line at Jennifer@summersdale.com. If you’re simply interested in travel books, I’m on Facebook as Summersdale Traveleditor and have started a group called Great Travel Reading. If you prefer to tweet, I’m on Twitter at @SummersdaleGO so please say hello there.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a travel-related book, I’ve pulled together many of my favourite inspiring words from great travellers from over the centuries, and found interesting snippets of information about the lives of legendary people like Patrick Leigh Fermor, Freya Stark, Isabella Bird and Bruce Chatwin, and have recently published them in a book beautifully illustrated by Kath Walker called The Traveller’s Friend: A Miscellany of Wit and Wisdom. It might be a good gift for someone you know. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Travellers-Friend-Miscellany-Wit-Wisdom/dp/1849531897/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1318776568&sr=8-3)

Jennifer

www.octopus-in-my-ouzo.blogspot.com www.coolstuffkorea.blogspot.com http://www.twitter.com/CoolstuffKorea www.twitter.com/SummersdaleGO

Ontario meetings are held at 8.00pm on the third Friday of January, March, May (4^th Friday), September and November, at Old York Tower, 85 The Esplanade, in downtown Toronto.

Everyone welcome especially visiting travellers 🙂

For more information contact Svatka Hermanek at hermanek@yahoo.ca, Bruce Weber at bruceaweber@hotmail.com / on tel. 416 203-0911 or Paul Webb on tel. 416 694-8259.

With Jacqui at the lectern, we had two contrasting talks geographically & politically:-

• Andrea Orban and Laurence West – An independent canter through Libya. Andrea & Laurence spent four years living & working in Libya, right up to the point that the recent overthrow of Gaddafi & his regime engulfed the country and this talk led the audience chronologically through its history. For example did you know Libya is 99% desert and is three times the size of Texas ? Or that the country has no rivers that drain into the sea ? Waves of peoples have forced their imprint onto Libya – Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Islamists, Ottoman Turks, Italians & the World War II conflict. Many have left monumental traces, such as the Cyrene & Leptis Magna. The country is famed for oil but also the best Olives in the Mediterranean countries.Our speakers couldn’t totally avoid the modern day troubles of Gaddafi, even though they enjoyed their lives. Travel was only made easy through the use of letters of introduction by government officials, discussing politics was taboo (people were never sure who was listening !) and our speakers were working with organisations approved of by the regime.

  Overall Andrea & Laurence’s talk was well received and gave many of us a good context of Libya & its continually changing history 🙂

• Jacqui Trotter – Summer in southern Scotland. As a last minute stand in for the published second speaker, Jacqui leapt to the aid of the audience with a whistle stop tour of southern Scotland ! En route to a friend’s wedding, Jacqui fulfilled a long held travel wish to visit a swathe of key destinations – Glasgow, Stirling, Glencoe, Oban & Inverary. Scottish National Trust properties came & went at a rapid rate of knots & Jacqui attempted to soak up as much detail as possible in a few days And she still made it to the wedding on time !! Well done, as ever Jacqui 🙂

Hello all,

A bumper edition to savour – make sure you leave plenty of time to enjoy this eNewsletter, in between the many festivities that you might be enjoying 🙂 Included this month is:-

• a stunning article by Jennifer Barclay on her new life on a Greek island ! Jennifer has spoken previously at the London branch and based on this article we’ll be keen to ask her back in the near future
• a write up by Hanna of the Chester branch on how their November meeting went, in celebration of two years of being an active branch. Congratulations & well done to all involved 🙂
• Extra 🙂 The London branch are looking for volunteers again to help with the travel advising stand at the Adventure Travel Show (http://adventureshow.com) on Saturday January 28th and Sunday January 29th 2012. If you would like to volunteer again please follow this link below and fill in the form to register…a member of the organising team will be in touch:- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHBOZng0MHFNbzZDNHVCaHZHOFlvWnc6MQ
• Extra, extra 🙂 If you would like to attend the Adventure Travel show but not as a volunteer travel advisor, you can buy advanced tickets at a 40% discount…yes that’s £6.00 rather than £10 ! Send an email to theant@globetrotters.co.uk, stating your membership number and ask me for the reduced price ticket code.

What else is happening across the wider travel world ?

• Frommer’s publish a list of global events that have plenty of ideas for travellers – enjoy at http://events.frommers.com/sisp/index.htm
• follow the progress of the “It’s on the meter team” and their round the world journey by London taxi at http://www.itsonthemeter.com/

Update from The Ant – the boys & Hannah have now reached Australia & are wondering whether to continue round the world I know which one I voted for on their Facebook page !

• follow the progress of Sarah Outen’s “London2London” adventure at http://www.sarahouten.com

That’s all for now, enjoy the read and keep sending me more of your stories, adventures and articles 🙂 Happy 2012 to you all

The Ant theant@globetrotters.co.uk

Hi The Ant,

It was great to actually meet you on your meeting [Note from The Ant…Hannah & partner joined us the November London branch meeting], we enjoyed it all immensely and have told everyone about in our meeting. We had a good turnout this time, about 40 people all in all and 35 paying from that number, so we are getting there

I have done a ditty for the E Newsletter and hopefully you could include that in your next issue

Thanks very much for your help

Kind Regards

Hanna

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We Had our meeting this Saturday and it was a great success ! We had about 40 people attending and we reminded ourselves of the fact that it was 2 years ago that we had our first meeting. To celebrate the occasion we had mince pies and chocolates for everyone in the break and there was an exciting buzz about the place

The first talk we had was by Eve and Don McPherson who had made a trip to Cambodia in March of this year, the title was : Impressions of Cambodia after Polpot. Eve and Don told us about the wonderful trip and showed us some fantastic photographs. Temples of Angkor, especially Angkor Wat are without a doubt one of the most captivating sights in South East Asia. There are still many temples not yet renovated and are covered with tree roots and branches draped around the walls. We had a background on Polpot and the Killing fields and soon moved on to a delightful group of young people living in the many orphan homes in Cambodia. Eve and Don have made many friends there and enjoyed the simple but very good accommodation there. We have got a wonderful impression of the Khmer people, a welcoming and warm nation!

Then it was break time, many travel ideas and cups of tea were exchanged, some were still asking many questions about Cambodia and others were making plans for their next trip It was a busy time

The second talk was by Derek Brown who after he retired got the sailing bug and after buying a boat in Holland motored it down the Rhine and on the Danube all the way to Istanbul. He showed us some impressive photos of the various locks that had to be negotiated and a fantastic entrance into Budapest by boat. The Houses of Parliament look very different from the river. Some very pretty places he visited along the Danube, especially some of the towns in Austria. Derek had even a few video clips to give us an idea of moving along the river and how that felt. Romania and Bulgaria seem to have still a long way to go, but some of the towns again were very pretty. On to the Black Sea and from there along the coast line to Istanbul with its Blue Mosque and lots of boats on the Bosporus.

Both talks drew a lot of attention and many questions were asked with several trips being planned. We closed the meeting just after four and some of us went to have a drink in the pub the Bear and Billet afterwards

Our next meeting is Saturday 21st of January 2012 and we will have a talk about Borneo with the second talk on Kilimanjaro

Kind Regards

Hanna

Chester meetings are held at The Grosvenor Museum, 25 – 27 Grosvener Street, Chester, CH1 2DD.

Tickets £3 including refreshments.

For more information contact Angela, Hanna or Eve for further information of this & future events at Chester via email at chesterbranch@globetrotters.co.uk

With Dan at the lectern, we had two surprisingly entertaining & different speakers who both spoke about quite new subjects:-

• James Willcox – Impressions of Afghanistan. A more exotic travel adventurer than most, James ended up working as a travel guide in Afghanistan, after falling in love with the country on overland trip via Pakistan many years ago. Yes his early days across the country were scattered with the detritus of numerous wars but it is not as uniformly throughout the country.Whilst Kabul & Helmand province endure much, Bamian & the Central Highlands still have so much to offer the brave visitor cultures reflecting the millennia of trade & conquest, a network of teahouses to rival Nepal and an incredibly friendly cross section of peoples.James still works regularly in Afghanistan and you can understand more via his company’s web site at http://www.untamedborders.com/.
• Chris Weston – Animals on the edge. Another traveller who has undertaken what seems a nonstop & ever changing journey, Chris Weston started out as a photographer, after getting bored, and has ended up as a well-regarded specialist on eco tourism. Chris’s main message, delivered passionately but not preaching, is that human / animal conflict over valuable resources is the main cause of species’ threatening extinctions.But Chris doesn’t stop at using his excellent photography to deliver the big stories & pictures he also works at delivering thoughtful solutions – his message is that we can only effectively conserve if we economically value the animal & plant worlds on a meaningful &interactive human level. Visit http://www.animalsontheedge.org/ to see how Chris & his team enjoy gorilla trekking in Rwanda or searching for Tigers in their last remaining strongholds of India & Russia.

The London branch’s future meetings are detailed at London Meeting Programme.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend – then the meeting rolls forward to the next weekend.

There is no London meeting in August, so we start afresh each September.

For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 7193 2586, or visit the web site: https://globetrotters.co.uk/local-meetings.html.