AWOL: absent without leave; absent from one’s post or duty without official permission but without intending to desert. Originally a military term, it gradually entered the vernacular for when someone goes missing unexpectedly. Jennifer Barclay and Amy Logan thought it fit well with the kind of travel pieces they wanted to publish -- irreverent but thoughtful, emotionally honest and opinionated, bold and provocative. AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Mindswould be dedicated to the perspectives we gain when away from our regular circumstances. They were tired of opening newspaper travel sections to accounts of five-star hotels or hip restaurants, package holidays and cruises, or extreme, death-defying feats. The tales that excited them were more personal. They wanted to bring back a sense of wonder about the world out there. “Rejecting the consumerist attitude of always wanting something better, which seems to go hand in hand with the concept of extreme travel, we wanted to show that there are different kinds of adventures -- the ones that are more by-the-seat-of-your-pants and that all of us can afford. It’s about slowing down the way we travel, learning to observe and to relish all the moments.” Inviting authors to contribute, they stressed they weren’t looking for detached reportage, but unpublished true tales of pleasure or pain or hilarity that would move and inspire. “Travel has become an important aspect of our lives, and we felt it was important to explore what we get out of it: Whether it makes us better citizens of the planet or enriches our lives. How discovering the world can be about discovering yourself, or help you see life afresh.” They wanted writing that was exciting and creative, that fired the imagination, dazzled with language, captured something emblematic or unique. The stories are full of telling details and do not shirk from emotion. The trips range from a short break close to home, to years living on the other side of the world. When Rick Maddocks leaves for Mexico, his father says “I hope you find what you’re searching for.” But you don’t always find what you expect. “What was I expecting…?” asks Andrew Pyper on arriving in Brazil. Karen Connelly tries to switch off the chattering of her brain in Burma, so she can just “shut up and see.” After a year in China, Rui Umezawa is utterly disoriented: “The world as I’d known it no longer existed. Neither did the man I believed myself to be.” However far or near you travel, an AWOL destination is a place where, says Brad Smith, “the usual rules don’t apply.” Myrna Kostash muses, roaming through Greece, “I cannot be further away from the rest of my life.” But when Camilla Gibb comes home from Ethiopia, her own culture seems bleak, “devoid of all colour, all meaning.” The authors in AWOLhave collectively won or been nominated for practically every literary prize in Canada, making it an extraordinary collection of original writing. The editors also decided to add another dimension to the book, a sense of fun and accessibility, by pasting in trip memorabilia -- tickets, snaps, sketches and odd mementoes -- to divide up the text and draw the reader into the stories. They wanted AWOLto feel a bit like a magazine: a reader-friendly paperback with big pages and great design, something to read on the bus for inspiration and escape, or to amble through at the cottage. The Toronto Star called AWOLa “decidedly quirky collection that follows no obvious theme or point of departure -- except the delicious need to go away.” If travel is about broadening the mind and having fun, AWOL is to get us through the rest of the year. The Winnipeg Free Press called it “an all-encompassing armchair travel experience … the kind of collection that, once read, will beckon from the bookshelf to fill a particular longing when it strikes.” For those who dream of having no fixed address, and those happy simply to read about it, AWOLis filled with entertaining, enriching and edifying stories of people getting away from the familiar.

AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds

Logan, Amy

Barclay, Jennifer

Biographies & Memoirs

Vintage Canada

"This book will make you laugh and cry and laugh again. I didn't want it to end."―Emma Woolf, author of An Apple a Day
The Best Gifts in Life are the Gifts We Give Ourselves...
Eat Pray Love meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding with a sprinkling of Mamma Mia in this unforgettable journey from heartbreak to happiness. One winter, when her love life falls apart, Jennifer Barclay decides on Three Gifts to Self. One and Two are reducing her workload and staying away from relationships. The Third is a month alone on a tiny, wild Greek island. It's a chance to find another kind of contentment, one that comes from holding an octopus in your hands. She decides to stay longer, but just when everything is falling into place again, the strangest thing happens...
"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

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

Community & Culture

Sourcebooks

"A vivid and intoxicating account of these beautiful islands" - Victoria Hislop. "A must-read for anyone who loves the Greek islands" - Richard Clark '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 talking to local people to hear their stories. 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.Wild Abandon is an elegy in praise of abandoned places and a search for lost knowledge through the wildest and most deserted locations.

Wild Abandon: A Journey to the Deserted Places of the Dodecanese

Travel

Europe

Bradt Travel Guides

The world knows more about secret North Korea than the free society of the South. As a peace summit heralded a new era for a country divided for 50 years, Jennifer Barclay searched for the spirit of South Korea, discovering a land full of passion, tradition and spirituality, good humor, and great food. Jen quit her high-pressure job and followed her musician boyfriend to South Korea, where his band had a contract to play funk at a luxury hotel. But life in Seoul was lonely and bewildering. Desperate to connect with Korean life and the people, she said goodbye to the capital and set off alone to explore the country. With patience and determination she found her way to ancient tombs and Buddhist temples, strangers' homes and forest-covered mountains, where people's kindness and pride in their culture began to work magic. They were on a mission to ensure she left with happy memories—and perhaps a new set of values.

Meeting Mr Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi

Asia

Summersdale

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." —St Augustine
Backpackers, ramblers, jet-setters, and all types of travel junkies will be inspired by this miscellany of quotations, trivia, and beautiful prose celebrating the open road, interspersed with practical advice on everything from packing to photography.

The Traveller's Friend: A Miscellany of Wit and Wisdom

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." —Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
Prepare your senses for a feast of delicious food scenes in literature accompanied with recipes to bring them to life in your very own kitchen, including Turkish delight Edmund wouldn’t be able to resist, roast goose the Cratchits would be proud of and cucumber sandwiches Algernon would be loath to share. This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys spending their days with a book in one hand and a saucepan in the other. Includes metric measures.

A Literary Feast: Recipes Inspired by Novels, Poems and Plays

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

An Octopus In My Ouzo

Summersdale Publishers

Meeting Mr. Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi

Arts & Literature

Wakefield Pr

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Books by Barclay, Jennifer