Adventures of two British journalists and their Jack Russell dog in Greece
THANK you for visiting this website. We are two British journalists - Marjory McGinn and Jim Bruce - who, after many years working in newspapers and charting other people's adventures in life, embarked on one fat risky one of our own.
In the spring of 2010, we left a quiet village in Scotland and relocated to Greece, despite the fact that the country was sliding into economic crisis. Admittedly, the timing wasn’t good, but after an Arctic winter and a British recession, what was there to fear from Greece on the edge?
We chose the wild, unspoilt Mani region of the southern Peloponnese, basing ourselves in the hillside village of Megali Mantineia, beneath the Taygetos mountains. In this traditional farming settlement, where nothing much had changed in centuries, we met unforgettable local characters, took part in their way of life and set about living a Greek kind of life - not always an easy task with Wallace, our manic Jack Russell dog, in tow.
The results were often hilarious, heart-warming, and challenging, especially as the economic crisis deepened and the country experienced the biggest social upheaval since the Second World War. While we planned to stay in Greece for a year, the fat odyssey grew bigger - and ran for four years. It became the basis for Marjory's four best-selling travel memoirs, starting with the popular Things Can Only Get Feta, and two novels (see below) and was charted in our Greek blog (click ‘blog’ on the bar at the top of the page).
While we had to return to the UK in 2015, Marjory still writes about Greece, and occasionally other stunning locations we have visited, on the blog. She continues to write books mainly set in Greece, apart from the humorous international travel tales that feature in her latest book, Wake Me Up For The Elephants (see below).
THANK you for visiting this website. We are two British journalists - Marjory McGinn and Jim Bruce - who, after many years working in newspapers and charting other people's adventures in life, embarked on one fat risky one of our own.
In the spring of 2010, we left a quiet village in Scotland and relocated to Greece, despite the fact that the country was sliding into economic crisis. Admittedly, the timing wasn’t good, but after an Arctic winter and a British recession, what was there to fear from Greece on the edge?
We chose the wild, unspoilt Mani region of the southern Peloponnese, basing ourselves in the hillside village of Megali Mantineia, beneath the Taygetos mountains. In this traditional farming settlement, where nothing much had changed in centuries, we met unforgettable local characters, took part in their way of life and set about living a Greek kind of life - not always an easy task with Wallace, our manic Jack Russell dog, in tow.
The results were often hilarious, heart-warming, and challenging, especially as the economic crisis deepened and the country experienced the biggest social upheaval since the Second World War. While we planned to stay in Greece for a year, the fat odyssey grew bigger - and ran for four years. It became the basis for Marjory's four best-selling travel memoirs, starting with the popular Things Can Only Get Feta, and two novels (see below) and was charted in our Greek blog (click ‘blog’ on the bar at the top of the page).
While we had to return to the UK in 2015, Marjory still writes about Greece, and occasionally other stunning locations we have visited, on the blog. She continues to write books mainly set in Greece, apart from the humorous international travel tales that feature in her latest book, Wake Me Up For The Elephants (see below).
New travel memoir by Marjory McGinn
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Wake Me Up For The Elephants - described by best-selling author Peter Kerr as "travel writing at its best" - is a new collection of funny and candid tales.
This new book, available from all Amazon stores, has the humour and flavour of Marjory McGinn's Greek memoirs but with a broader canvas: Africa, Greece, Australia, Fiji, Scotland and Ireland. They are exotic, romantic locations, and the stories are based on real journeys. They introduce the reader to wild locations, eccentric fellow travellers and hilarious, often scary, situations: dodging wild animals on safari and a male stalker in Mombasa; dance torment in tropical Fiji; a supernatural mystery in the Australian bush; a beach gallop in Ireland led by a lobster fisherman; a boating mash-up on the exquisite Greek island of Paxos. This book is also in part a prequel to Marjory's Greek travel series. |
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Marjory's Fourth Greek memoir
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A Donkey On The Catwalk is the fourth book in the Peloponnese series of travel memoirs by Marjory McGinn (see details for the others below). It's a new collection of original stories and travel narratives, many of them following the adventures of Marjory, Jim and their lovable terrier Wallace in rural Greece. Once again it offers comical and insightful tales of life in wild and stunning locations.
Readers will enjoy the escapades of the unforgettable farmer Foteini: her unique take on life; her outrageous ‘fashions’, including a bizarre shoe design, and her ‘haute couture’ offerings for Riko the donkey. As well as tales of the Peloponnese, there are stories from other Greek locations, including Pelion and the islands of Santorini and Corfu. This book also offers a fascinating glimpse into some of the author’s earliest trips to Greece, including a year of teaching English in Athens during a political upheaval and a long sabbatical in Crete that didn’t quite go to plan. Available in Kindle and paperback from all Amazon sites. |
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Two thrilling novels set in Greece
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Marjory’s latest novel has been published worldwide, titled How Greek Is Your Love? It's the eagerly anticipated sequel to A Saint For The Summer, published in 2018 and still riding high in the bestseller charts on Amazon.
The new novel is a story laced with intrigue and romance and has been described by award-winning Scottish author Peter Kerr as “a captivating book – it grabs the reader's attention and holds it right to the end”. In this sequel, expat journalist Bronte McKnight is in the early days of her love affair with charismatic doctor Leonidas Papachristou. But as Bronte tries to live and love like a Greek, the economic crisis spawns an unlikely and menacing predator in the village. While Bronte begins to question her sunny existence in Greece, an old love from Leonidas’s past also makes a troubling appearance. In her latest adventures, Bronte enlists the help of her maverick father Angus and her newest love, Zeffy, the heroic rescue dog. The challenges she faces bring high drama and great humour. Can she ever find a foothold in her Greek paradise? Do read the book and find out! With the same characters from A Saint For The Summer reappearing, alongside some exciting new ones, the novel can be read as a standalone book, but if you are keen to learn the full story of the World War Two family mystery that first brought Bronte to Greece, and how it was solved, you will want to read A Saint For The Summer too. For more insight into both books click on the ‘Greek books’ page on this website. And for interviews about the books, please click on the 'Author interviews' page. |
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Video tour for A Saint For The Summer
The Peloponnese series of travel memoirs by Marjory McGinn
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Marjory's three other acclaimed Greek travel memoirs, Things Can Only Get Feta, Homer's Where The Heart Is and A Scorpion In The Lemon Tree, are available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon's stores. See the Greek Books page for details and links to buy them on Amazon UK and outside the UK.
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Views of the Peloponnese
 Octopus drying in Gytheio
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 Church on Monemvasia
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 Sunset at Kitries harbour
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"When you set out on the voyage to Ithaka
Pray that the way be long
Full of adventures and experiences
The Laistrygonians, and the Kyklopes,
Angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them"
- From Ithaka, by Greek poet Konstantinos Kavafis
© Text and photographs copyright of the authors 2010-2024.
No reproduction of text or images without written permission.
No reproduction of text or images without written permission.