While reading a copy of Homer’s Odyssey, travel journal writer Laura Coffey decided to follow in the footsteps of Ulysses. She left London with the goal of discovering those enchanting places where geography and mythology intersect. Along the way, she discovered the healing power of nature, of travel, of swimming in cold waters, of long hikes through the mountains, and of star-filled skies. For six months, Laura escaped her small and stifling world and journeyed through archipelagos and mystical Mediterranean islands believed to be landmarks from Odysseus’s epic voyage. At the end of this journey, she chose to capture the experience in writing—thus The Enchanted Islands: Journeys through Myth and Magic, Love and Loss was born, recently published by ap! (ACT and Politon).
The Enchanted Islands: Journeys through Myth and Magic, Love and Loss is a story about how the ordinary can become extraordinary, and how we can always choose to turn loss into gain.
Laura Coffey is a travel journal writer who feels most at home on the move. She describes herself as addicted to cold-water swimming and adventure, and she loves writing about the wild beauty of the places she visits and the people she meets along the way. Her work has been published in Condé Nast Traveller, The Guardian, and BBC Travel. She is a certified yoga teacher, a passionate solo traveler, and a devoted bird enthusiast. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cycling around London, practicing yoga, or planning her next escape to a faraway island.
C&B: Before the pandemic hit and you traveled in search of the places mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, did you ever think to write a book?
Laura Coffey: I’d always wanted to write a book in a dreamy kind of way and I feel lucky to have found a publisher in England, and even luckier that ACT & Politon have backed the book and invested in translating it into Romanian! It’s a pleasure seeing my book travel across the world and I’m delighted she’s made her way to your country, and very excited to see what Romanian readers make of the book.
C&B: How do you structure your writing process when working on a book versus writing an article/travel piece?
Laura Coffey: I wish I had a bulletproof process! It’s actually pretty messy and I’m still figuring it all out. When I write articles I’m usually on a tight deadline which helps me write with focus and urgency. And I’ve learned so much from the brilliant newspaper and magazine editors I’ve been fortunate enough to work with, they’ve taught me a lot about being concise and getting to the point quickly, you have such little space in an article. I think that discipline helps me now when I’m writing longer form. The book is deliberately slim because I wanted it to flow really fast for the reader. When I’m working on a book I tend to write notes by hand and I also create index cards with scenes scrawled on them and pin them up – it ends up looking a bit like a detective investigation in my flat – there’s cards and arrows andpost it notes all over the walls. I write best first thing in the morning and I’ve had to learn to force myself out of bed. I don’t know if there’s a perfect process though – I’m still learning.
C&B: If you could live on one of the islands/places described in your book, which one would it be and why?
Laura Coffey: That’s a difficult question! It would probably be a choice up between Favignana – the island full of wonders in my book, or Menorca, thought perhaps to be the island of the Cyclops. They are both beautiful and magical but in totally different ways. Menorca is easier to reach and much larger and it’s got the most incredible local produce and the most stunning water. And my friend, Naked Andrew, comes swimming with me there – if you read the book you’ll learn all about him. Favignana is harder to reach but has this magnetic pull that keeps bringing me back. I’m also keen to find new favourite islands too — there’s so many amazing places to visit!
C&B: Which place do you think could really be the one mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey?
Laura Coffey: I love reading about the theories of all the scholars across time who tried to pin down the exact geography of The Odyssey. There’s something very compelling about the idea of searching for secret places in the world where geography and mythology collide. While I do think real life islands perhaps inspired the fantastical lands of The Odyssey, just as myth shapes the way we understand and respond to landscape, I’m not sure it’s really possible to say this place equals that island in the story. To me it’s more of an evocation, a conjuring, not an exact rendering. When I was in Sicily I could believe it inspired the island of the sun god Helios, the light there is extraordinary. And when I visited the tiny island of Stromboli it had this powerful energy about it, and felt like perhaps Aelous, the guardian of the winds could have lived somewhere like that.
C&B: How do you balance storytelling with factual travel reporting in your book?
Laura Coffey: Obviously it would be dull to just write a blow by blow travel diary and I wanted to make sure the book had a narrative arc. Which, in a way, was easy, because it was an island-hopping adventure that had a clear starting point and a homecoming, and in that way paralleled The Odyssey so I could weave the great epic and my own story together. I also wanted the book to feel kinesthetic, for it to be full of motion and movement, to have a sense of the sea inside it. That meant fast writing and flowing prose – my intention was transportive: I set out to bring readers alongside me in these islands, to have them with me as I share the wonder and the magic and the sadness across this long, uncertain journey.
C&B: Do you write while traveling, or do you prefer to reflect and write after returning home?
Laura Coffey: I wrote most days when I was travelling in my scrappy journal which helped when I came to write the book later on because I had a lot of notes and fragments of conversations jotted down. I also occasionally typed small pieces while I was away. For example, there’s a chapter near the end of the book that’s full of birds. I’d been out with an ornithologist for the day and it was such an amazing experience that I just sat down at my laptop and typed it all up almost immediately, and I think that chapter has a particular vitality to it, an immediacy and a vibrance you can sense in the writing
C&B: What do you hope readers take away from ENCHANTED ISLANDS?
Laura Coffey: Love. The book is a love letter to my father, to these wild islands, to this beautiful world we share in all its radiance and fragility and brutality. Some readers have also told me that the chapters about grief made them feel seen and accompanied. Those are some of the letters I’ve most treasured.
C&B: Do you have a favorite travel story or encounter that didn’t make it into the book?
Laura Coffey: So many! I got rescued by some fishermen when I tried to swim out to an island off the coast in Taormina – it was too far away and I was too ambitious and the current was too strong. So I ended up smashed into some rocks and treading water and bleeding and wondering how on earth I’d get back to the shore which seemed a long way away. Sicilian fishermen passing by in a boat stopped and rescued me and then took me on an impromptu boat tour of the blue grotto cave and all around Isola Bella and a disaster turned into a very fun experience. I felt a bit like Odysseus being rescued by Athena from the grip of Poseidon and I was sad when it was cut from the book.
C&B: What’s the most unforgettable destination you’ve ever visited?
Laura Coffey: The serengeti. I was young, it was an endless summer, I was looking out of the window as we were driving and time seemed to stop moving for a while. I return to this moment a lot, the pouring African light, the way the yellow grass moved against the sun, the acacia tree in the distance, a sense of being surrounded by all this wilderness and warmth. It was a moment of complete contentment in the middle of a great adventure. A feeling that I was exactly where I should be, and time stopped for a little while.
C&B: How do you approach writing about a place in a way that captures both its beauty and its reality?
Laura Coffey: Good question. I write mostly about what I love, and try and capture the details to give a sense of place, how a particular island feels. I write a lot about food as I think that’s a great way to bring a place to life. And I often share conversations I had with strangers I met in a particular place. I’m not very much interested in the gritty reality but more in showing the magical qualities of a landscape and the hidden places you might otherwise not notice. When I write about London I write about cycling across the bridges on my bicycle, and try to give a sense of the scale of the city and how it feels to be travelling through it, to be moving through the cityscape. When I write about islands I’ll often focus on a small detail, a particular flower or a lizard or the sound of the sea playing with the pebbles on the beach.
C&B: Many people dream of being travel writers. What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow this career path?
Laura Coffey: I’m very fortunate to write for different magazines and newspapers and I don’t take it lightly. What I didn’t realise when I was starting out was how important the pitch is, so my advice would be to really work on an excellent pitch – something short and pithy that will hopefully catch an editor’s eye.
C&B: You’re based in London. What do you love most about the city?
Laura Coffey: I love cycling down the embankment late at night – the route is right alongside the river and there are fairy lights strung between the lamp-posts and the theatres across the river are lit up and the different coloured lights reflect in the water as you ride along and it all feels so full of possibility and romance, this big beautiful city, the river and the bridges and the lights and the night sky.
C&B: If a traveler had only 24 hours in London, what would you recommend they do?
Laura Coffey: I would stroll through Green Park to St James’s Park, have cream tea at The Wolseley (not the full afternoon tea, this one is even nicer in my opinion) and then walk on through soho, calling in at Liberty for the best shopping, and on to Covent Garden. I’d book a West End show and end the evening over decadent cocktails at Scarfes Bar. The next day I’d suggest going up Tower Bridge for a view of the city – much nicer than the London Eye, perhaps catching a water taxi up the Thames and on to an art exhibition somewhere like the Tate Modern (which features in my book) and I’d highly recommend calling in at Daunt Books in Marylebone, the most beautiful bookshop in the city – what’s great is the way they organise their books by place so you can read the literature of a city or a country at the same time as planning a trip there.
C&B: Do you think London is a good city for writers and creatives? Why or why not?
Laura Coffey: London can be an unforgiving mistress at times. I find it easiest to write in Sicily where a dear friend generously lends me her beach house which is just as idyllic as it sounds. London is wonderful in terms of the richness of the culture here. It’s a creative city but not necessarily a connected city, and I like to be near the sea when I write.
C&B: What’s next for you? Are you working on another book or an exciting travel project?
Laura Coffey: I’m about to travel back to Sicily and then heading over to Slovenia which is a country I’ve visited a lot in recent years. I love the mountains there and can’t wait to go climbing again.
C&B: Do you have any writing rituals or habits that help you stay focused and inspired?
Laura Coffey: I love a good ritual. I burn candles, incense, I do yoga and walk outside when I feel stuck – often in Victoria Park which is near my house. A new ritual I’m experimenting with is starting the day by reading a poem out loud. I love the collections from Padraig O’Tuama because he includes a short essay to help you understand the poem. The collection I’m currently reading is called 44 Poems On Being With Each Other. And one of my favourite rituals is cold water swimming – there’s a lot of that in the book. I find it really sharpens my mind and energises my body.
