Evia: Travels on an Undiscovered Greek Island

by Sara Wheeler

The seahorse-shaped island of Evia – Euboia in classical history and Negroponte for many centuries – is the second largest in Greece, yet it is almost completely undiscovered by tourists. Separated from the mainland by only a sliver of sea, Evia has had a turbulent history. Today it encapsulates the Greece of decades ago – unspoilt and pristine, a haven for the more discerning traveller. Evia , Sara Wheeler's first book, is the story of a five-month journey she made from the southern tip to the north of the island. Instantly enchanted by the landscape and languid pace of Evia, Wheeler immersed herself in the local way of life, where she witnessed centuries-old traditions, attended a goatherd's wedding and Bronze-age excavations, was harassed by Orthodox nuns, and spent nights in monasteries and village homes. Her story is a beautifully rendered account of a way of life that in the rest of Greece has all but disappeared and of an island on the cusp of change.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Greece

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Sara Wheeler was brought up in Bristol and studied Classics and Modern Languages at Brasenose College, University of Oxford. After writing about her travels on the Greek island of Euboea and in Chile, she was accepted by the US National Science Foundation as their first female writer-in-residence at the South Pole, and spent seven months in Antarctica.

In her resultant book Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, she mentioned sleeping in the captain’s bunk in Scott's Hut. Whilst in Antarctica she read The Worst Journey in the World, an account of the Terra Nova Expedition, and she later wrote a biography of its author Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

In 1999 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. From 2005 to 2009 she served as Trustee of the London Library.

She was frequently abroad for two years, travelled to Russia, Alaska, Greenland, Canada and North Norway to write her book The Magnetic North: Travels in the Arctic. A journalist at the Daily Telegraph in the UK called it a "snowstorm of historical, geographical and anthropological facts".

In a 2012 BBC Radio 4 series: To Strive and Seek, she told the personal stories of five various members of the Terra Nova Expedition.

O My America!: Second Acts in a New World records the lives of women who travelled to America in the first half of the 19th Century: Fanny Trollope, Fanny Kemble, Harriet Martineau, Rebecca Burlend, Isabella Bird, and Catherine Hubback, and the author's travels in pursuit of them.

Reviews

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the preface of this reprinted edition, Sara Wheeler states that she had for many years declined publishers’ requests to republish Evia. Looking back as a more experienced writer, she views her debut book as earnest but structurally problematic. She wonders if readers will find her “meaty – and undigested – slabs of history to their taste.” But she finds value in her depiction of life on Evia, and for that reason, we now have this reprinted edition.

I am so glad she consented to this reprint! Writers can be their own worst critics sometimes. I became interested in Evia when Wheeler described a vivid memory of an island monastery in her book Terra Incognita, which I read earlier this year. As when choosing a real-life traveling companion, choosing an engaging and likable travel writer is very important to the enjoyment of the journey. Once you’ve found a good travel writer, you’ll want to go with them wherever they go. Wheeler is such a writer.

In her Evian travels, Sara had the distinct and enviable advantage of speaking the language. In many rural villages she visited, she caused quite a stir: a solo British female traveler who spoke Greek! It always warms my heart to read of strangers offering hospitality to travelers and Sara experienced some outstanding hospitality. She was even made a sort of godmother to a newly christened baby at one point. This was especially remarkable considering Sara is Anglican and practically the whole island is Orthodox.

Indeed, Sara was implored to convert to Orthodoxy by many islanders along the way, particularly the nuns with whom she stayed on several occasions. Her unmarried state was also of great concern to her new Greek acquaintances. Not only that, but a number of residents apparently never had seen freckles before and thought that something was wrong with Sara’s face.

Though admitting some annoyance with the nosiness, Sara gamely took on all that was thrown her way. I liked how her travels did not have a strict itinerary, but were open to some whims and unexpected opportunities.

The depiction of life on Evia is warm: I was most moved and fascinated by the way Wheeler captures the fading traditions and slower pace of the island villages. And yet Wheeler is not uncritical. She doesn’t excuse inequality of gender roles and narrow minds.

I will say that Terra Incognita is the better written book. Those “undigested slabs of history” that Wheeler describes in the preface? I definitely noticed them and they could be a bit of a slog. (Classics nerds will find a kindred spirit, however.) But the anecdotes and descriptions of Wheeler’s travels more than made up for those denser passages.

I really enjoyed sinking into the pages of Evia over my vacation. I always find it refreshing to read about how other people live in the world and how they view people from outside their own culture. I often discover that other cultures contain something I wish mine had more of: palpable community, or amazing generosity.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book after liking Wheeler's book on Chile (a long time ago). This one proved a mixed bag in that it contains many sections of (ancient) historical background, with the travel narrative aspect secondary. The former wasn't badly done, but I found myself skimming through most it to get to the modern parts.

[Carol Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Sara's account of her travels in the Greek island of Evia/Euboea. It was written in the 1990s so provides a look at the island before much tourism had changed its ancient way of life. Sara includes a great deal of history of the area which might be more than some readers require, but certainly displays the amount of reading and research that was undertaken.

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

I get that this was Wheeler's first book and that she improved - I've never read anything of hers, since I associate her with the Antarctic and that's too close to home and too unpeopled for me - but all the same I thoroughly enjoyed her less-than-anthropological travels.

(I try not to have thoughts about traditional ways of life, poverty, and material comforts, since I don't get to have a say on what people should do or have done, but I'm pretty sure the Evia Wheeler describes is gone for good, making this a period piece as much as any earlier travels.)