Born and raised in a small Greek village, Kaliope has visions of heading off to the ‘big city’ to work, especially as she has her own apartment there. She’s secured a job in a bank, yet it’s in another small village, not far from her hometown. She’s had enough of village life: not enough going on, just farmer after farmer coming into the bank with their grubby hands and clothes. Sigh, when will something happen?

And then it does. Along comes this English person - a teacher (why has she chosen this God forsaken village to teach in?!) Kaliope literally bumps into her (it’s a hilly village, Rachel was descending the slope of her new home in rather a hurry, misjudging its gradient and clashing with Kaliope at the bottom).

The clash proves fortunate as their friendship is cemented. She finds solace in Rachel and can openly moan about her woes; with men, with the ‘hole of sh*t’ place they are located in (although she can’t understand Rachel’s non-disapproval of it).

Rebecca says…

Another character that was a real pleasure and not hard to develop. Kaliope is an exaggerated version of my very first encounter with a great Greek friend, but interestingly, I didn’t have to exaggerate her too much. A lot of what you will read in the book and script - what she gets up to, her lack of boundaries when she speaks, is very much like the real person that I came across when in the village. I didn’t literally bump into her, but it was good to write to give context of the village itself.
I was so lucky to meet ‘Kaliope’ - and I think she feels lucky to meet ‘Rachel’ too.