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TEA IN TRIPOLI: A Memoir
Broken by divorce, debt, and workplace sexual harassment, twenty-six-year-old Bernadette Nason is hanging by a thread. When her cat is run over by a garbage truck, Nason makes an impetuous decision. With almost no travel experience, she grabs the first available overseas job and, within two months, finds herself in Libya. ‘Fitting in’ has never been her strength, yet here she is, the most unstable, self-loathing, slightly overweight fish ever to throw itself recklessly out of its own water. Move over, Bridget Jones, there’s a new, real-life idiot in town.
Inspired by her expatriate adventures during Gaddafi's turbulent regime, c. 1984-85, Nason covers her thwarted desire to ‘fit in’, from bizarre daily life to terrifying confrontations with the Morality Police. Told with candor and wit, TEA IN TRIPOLI, follows a young woman’s attempts to escape her past on an extraordinary, often perilous, journey of self-discovery. It’s sure to resonate with anyone who has ever run away from problems instead of taking care of business.
Inspired by her expatriate adventures during Gaddafi's turbulent regime, c. 1984-85, Nason covers her thwarted desire to ‘fit in’, from bizarre daily life to terrifying confrontations with the Morality Police. Told with candor and wit, TEA IN TRIPOLI, follows a young woman’s attempts to escape her past on an extraordinary, often perilous, journey of self-discovery. It’s sure to resonate with anyone who has ever run away from problems instead of taking care of business.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 21, 2017
24 people are currently reading
502 people want to read
About the author
Bernadette Nason
2 books28 followersBernadette Nason is a multiple award-winning writer, actress, and storyteller. She hails from England, lives in Austin, and performs the world over. STEALING BABY JESUS: A Treasury of Ludicrous Attempts to Rescue Christmas, released in 2020, launched as an audiobook (performed by the author) for Christmas 2021. Her memoir, TEA IN TRIPOLI, about her "year of living dangerously" in Libya, was released Monday, 21 August 2017.
Nason is acclaimed for her spirited retelling of multicultural folktales and her personal stories about the contrasting lifestyles of the places she's lived. She has been on the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster since 2002, presenting annually to over 30,000 students. She has received the Austin Critics' Table Award for "Conspicuous Versatility" and is the 2017 title holder, "The Biggest Liar in Texas".
Nason is a company member of Austin Playhouse and ONSTAGE Theatre; resident artist with Pollyanna Theatre; and former associate artist with Austin Shakespeare Festival. She appeared in the feature film, "Miss Congeniality", and more recently, in "The Trial of Alice". She's been Austin Symphony's official emcee/storyteller for their Children's Summer Series since 2015, and recently performed for 11,000 students as “Scheherazade” in the San Antonio Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts.
Nason is acclaimed for her spirited retelling of multicultural folktales and her personal stories about the contrasting lifestyles of the places she's lived. She has been on the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster since 2002, presenting annually to over 30,000 students. She has received the Austin Critics' Table Award for "Conspicuous Versatility" and is the 2017 title holder, "The Biggest Liar in Texas".
Nason is a company member of Austin Playhouse and ONSTAGE Theatre; resident artist with Pollyanna Theatre; and former associate artist with Austin Shakespeare Festival. She appeared in the feature film, "Miss Congeniality", and more recently, in "The Trial of Alice". She's been Austin Symphony's official emcee/storyteller for their Children's Summer Series since 2015, and recently performed for 11,000 students as “Scheherazade” in the San Antonio Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 16, 2017
Tea in Tripoli is an entertaining memoir about the author's two years spent working for an oil company in Libya. Scattered throughout the book are copies of letters she wrote to her mother along with the rules for living in Libya.
The author writes about life in Tripoli, the shortage of good food, the dangers of being a woman alone, and the few excursions she took in the country. She also writes about her days as a secretary, the Italian men she worked for, and the relationships she had with the other secretaries. It became clear to readers that there wasn't a lot to do in Tripoli, as Nason expounded a great deal on the drinking parties held with geologists and engineers and the creative meals that she and the other secretaries came up with.
As an international educator who also worked in the Middle East, I could relate to the author's accounts of men staring, the rude comments they shouted from car windows, and the dangers of being out alone at night. I enjoyed Nason's style of writing and her quirky sense of humor.
The author writes about life in Tripoli, the shortage of good food, the dangers of being a woman alone, and the few excursions she took in the country. She also writes about her days as a secretary, the Italian men she worked for, and the relationships she had with the other secretaries. It became clear to readers that there wasn't a lot to do in Tripoli, as Nason expounded a great deal on the drinking parties held with geologists and engineers and the creative meals that she and the other secretaries came up with.
As an international educator who also worked in the Middle East, I could relate to the author's accounts of men staring, the rude comments they shouted from car windows, and the dangers of being out alone at night. I enjoyed Nason's style of writing and her quirky sense of humor.
March 4, 2018
TEA IN TRIPOLI. It was troubled times in the life of twenty-five year old Berni when she signed a contract to serve one year as a secretary to an oil company executive in Libya where times were even more troubling. She gamely packed her possessions, said hard goodbyes to family, friends, and her fiance, to board the flight on British Caledonian, the only airline that flew from England to Tripoli. So begins this charming, funny, and brave tale of Bernadette's year of adventure, culture-shock, and self discovery.
I read this memoir in a little more than one sitting because I was so engrossed and entertained by Bernadette's storytelling style.
Thank you @BernadetteNason for sharing your story with me!
I read this memoir in a little more than one sitting because I was so engrossed and entertained by Bernadette's storytelling style.
Thank you @BernadetteNason for sharing your story with me!
July 29, 2017
Bernadette's writing style is like listening to a close friend tell you a fantastic story. I could hear her musical voice in my hear telling me the tales of the adventure of a lifetime. The evocative imagery she employed to describe the sights, sounds, and (not always pleasant) smells of Libya really made me feel like I was there, with sand in every one of my crevices and desperate for a good cup of tea!
Bernadette's sense of humor put me at ease, even when I was reading about absolutely terrifying events. I couldn't believe the level of detail and am very glad she did keep everything from her time in Tripoli. Take that Marie Kondo, maybe clutter isn't so bad!
I knew very little about the history of Libya beyond "Gaddafi is a tyrant", (or "Goofy is a tyrant" as Bernadette calls him so affectionately), and I found this book to be a great starter and overview from one person's very personal perspective. It definitely inspired me to find out more about the events she details in her memoir.
Anyone who enjoys memoirs, travel stories, history, or just a great tale told by a fantastic storyteller will love this book, I highly recommend it!
Bernadette's sense of humor put me at ease, even when I was reading about absolutely terrifying events. I couldn't believe the level of detail and am very glad she did keep everything from her time in Tripoli. Take that Marie Kondo, maybe clutter isn't so bad!
I knew very little about the history of Libya beyond "Gaddafi is a tyrant", (or "Goofy is a tyrant" as Bernadette calls him so affectionately), and I found this book to be a great starter and overview from one person's very personal perspective. It definitely inspired me to find out more about the events she details in her memoir.
Anyone who enjoys memoirs, travel stories, history, or just a great tale told by a fantastic storyteller will love this book, I highly recommend it!
July 26, 2017
Tea in Tripoli by Bernadette Nason is tale of a twenty-six year old who is recently divorced, in debt, faced workplace sexual harassment and her life is unwillingly a wreck. An incident regarding the death of her cat, leads her to make a bold and impetuous decision. To work abroad. To leave her native land and go on an adventure. Become an expatriate.
With no travel experience, she grabs the first available overseas job in a British Oil Corportation and within two months she finds her consciousness and her body in Libya. This is the time of Gaddafi's regime, the period of 1984, Bernadette tries to escape her past by living in a place that is bizarre and with almost no daily life and always a terrifying chance of being confronted by the Morality Police.
Even though it's a memoir, the first person narrative really drives the book forward. Her real experiences, including settling in a different country of different culture and religion, overcoming difficulties regarding food, and clothes and bizarre rules of an authoritarian government. She does a great job in describing her surroundings and the feelings that come up with those experiences. Her fine and artful storytelling ability is at the display here with constant wittiness and humour elements, rightly used.
Recommend to anyone who is interested in reading a memoir or thinks the experience of living under an authoritarian government is intriguing. Also read, if you are trying to explore the era of 1980s.
4 out of 5!
With no travel experience, she grabs the first available overseas job in a British Oil Corportation and within two months she finds her consciousness and her body in Libya. This is the time of Gaddafi's regime, the period of 1984, Bernadette tries to escape her past by living in a place that is bizarre and with almost no daily life and always a terrifying chance of being confronted by the Morality Police.
Even though it's a memoir, the first person narrative really drives the book forward. Her real experiences, including settling in a different country of different culture and religion, overcoming difficulties regarding food, and clothes and bizarre rules of an authoritarian government. She does a great job in describing her surroundings and the feelings that come up with those experiences. Her fine and artful storytelling ability is at the display here with constant wittiness and humour elements, rightly used.
Recommend to anyone who is interested in reading a memoir or thinks the experience of living under an authoritarian government is intriguing. Also read, if you are trying to explore the era of 1980s.
4 out of 5!
November 10, 2017
I received this book from Goodreads.
Tea in Tripoli is about Bernadette Nason's oddball adventures in Africa as a secretary for an Italian company in Tripoli. It's about the highs, the lows, and the unending chaos. It's about confiscated tampons, shirt and sock parties, leering men, the ridiculous inability to find a workable broom, and learning not to photograph Russian ships.
It's a absolutely hilarious and addicting read that entertained me for hours.
Bernadette Nason is a writer of immense talent and depth.
Really, she is!
I just can't seem to find the words for this review.
Tea in Tripoli deserves every star I gave it and then some. I hope Bernadette decides to write more books.
Tea in Tripoli is about Bernadette Nason's oddball adventures in Africa as a secretary for an Italian company in Tripoli. It's about the highs, the lows, and the unending chaos. It's about confiscated tampons, shirt and sock parties, leering men, the ridiculous inability to find a workable broom, and learning not to photograph Russian ships.
It's a absolutely hilarious and addicting read that entertained me for hours.
Bernadette Nason is a writer of immense talent and depth.
Really, she is!
I just can't seem to find the words for this review.
Tea in Tripoli deserves every star I gave it and then some. I hope Bernadette decides to write more books.
July 24, 2017
Bernadette Nason writes with a great voice and a large dose of humor about her adventure in Libya during the tumultuous mid-1980s. Insightful and entertaining, it gives us an insider's look on living in a place and culture that, well, wouldn't exactly be on our "bucket" list.
July 3, 2022
Tea in Tripoli by Bernadette Nason is tale of a twenty-six year old who is recently divorced, in debt, faced workplace sexual harassment and her life is unwillingly a wreck. An incident regarding the death of her cat, leads her to make a bold and impetuous decision. To work abroad. To leave her native land and go on an adventure. Become an expatriate.
With no travel experience, she grabs the first available overseas job in a British Oil Corportation and within two months she finds her consciousness and her body in Libya. This is the time of Gaddafi's regime, the period of 1984, Bernadette tries to escape her past by living in a place that is bizarre and with almost no daily life and always a terrifying chance of being confronted by the Morality Police.
Even though it's a memoir, the first person narrative really drives the book forward. Her real experiences, including settling in a different country of different culture and religion, overcoming difficulties regarding food, and clothes and bizarre rules of an authoritarian government. She does a great job in describing her surroundings and the feelings that come up with those experiences. Her fine and artful storytelling ability is at the display here with constant wittiness and humour elements, rightly used.
Recommend to anyone who is interested in reading a memoir or thinks the experience of living under an authoritarian government is intriguing. Also read, if you are trying to explore the era of 1980s.
4 out of 5!
With no travel experience, she grabs the first available overseas job in a British Oil Corportation and within two months she finds her consciousness and her body in Libya. This is the time of Gaddafi's regime, the period of 1984, Bernadette tries to escape her past by living in a place that is bizarre and with almost no daily life and always a terrifying chance of being confronted by the Morality Police.
Even though it's a memoir, the first person narrative really drives the book forward. Her real experiences, including settling in a different country of different culture and religion, overcoming difficulties regarding food, and clothes and bizarre rules of an authoritarian government. She does a great job in describing her surroundings and the feelings that come up with those experiences. Her fine and artful storytelling ability is at the display here with constant wittiness and humour elements, rightly used.
Recommend to anyone who is interested in reading a memoir or thinks the experience of living under an authoritarian government is intriguing. Also read, if you are trying to explore the era of 1980s.
4 out of 5!
January 30, 2022
This was an interesting read. The most compelling part of it was Bernadette Nason's sheer, unapologetic honesty. Tea in Tripoli felt like an account of her inner thoughts and feelings while she challenged herself navigating a new environment and customs. However, there are undoubtedly limitations in need of being acknowledged. Her exploration of Libya was clearly subject to the restrictions of her circumstances, driven largely by totalitarian regime with strict practices. Moreover (and perhaps as a result), her account felt strangely removed from some of the deeper dynamics and cultural aspects of Libya. I had hoped she'd had the opportunity (and curiosity) to understand the people and culture more. Instead, her account seemed oddly limited by the clear bubble in which she lived. Ultimately, I scored this as a 4 because her journey challenged me in profound ways, and put me on edge a number of times or, as her mom put it, "the thin end of the wedge". I can tell that it has been a curious, complex chapter in Bernadette's life that (hopefully) became the seed to self growth and wisdom.
November 17, 2020
Bernadette Nason was only 26, yet she had already experienced more life changing events than many others experience in a lifetime. She visualized a better quality of life for herself and accepted a well paid position as a secretary with an oil company based in Libya.
The life she imagined did not materialize, with challenges from very basic accommodation, hair raising journeys to work, food shortages, unwanted attention from men of a very different culture...
However, she did enjoy making new friendships, and endless parties with other expats, in a somewhat unique setting.
She uses her own brand of self deprecating humour to entertain her readers, and offers an intriguing insight into life under Colonel Gaddafi in the 1980's.
The life she imagined did not materialize, with challenges from very basic accommodation, hair raising journeys to work, food shortages, unwanted attention from men of a very different culture...
However, she did enjoy making new friendships, and endless parties with other expats, in a somewhat unique setting.
She uses her own brand of self deprecating humour to entertain her readers, and offers an intriguing insight into life under Colonel Gaddafi in the 1980's.
April 18, 2022
I get the sense I'd really like these stories told in person. I'm willing to guess the one-woman shows are something.
And having known women in similar positions (not Libya, but Iran and Egypt), I know the stories are real, but I think these lose something in the telling. Instead of hearing the hardship Bernie was facing, I kept wanting her to be more assertive. I know, too, the sense of fear follows people for years - or decades - but this seemed to make too light of it.
So, it was a good story. Accurate. But not compelling, to me. I'd be betting, though, if I were sitting in a room with Nason, listening to these stories, I'd be as intrigued as I was with others I *did* speak with.
And having known women in similar positions (not Libya, but Iran and Egypt), I know the stories are real, but I think these lose something in the telling. Instead of hearing the hardship Bernie was facing, I kept wanting her to be more assertive. I know, too, the sense of fear follows people for years - or decades - but this seemed to make too light of it.
So, it was a good story. Accurate. But not compelling, to me. I'd be betting, though, if I were sitting in a room with Nason, listening to these stories, I'd be as intrigued as I was with others I *did* speak with.
January 1, 2018
Some people who suffer setback and broken relationships may move a few miles away or to the next town, Bernadette Nason moved part way around the world to Tripoli, Libya. Her vivid description of the oppressive society covers her experiences as a white British woman, but also those of her male colleagues. There is a sentence near the end where she talks about the freezing unable to make a selection from the multiple items in a grocery store that really shows the limited basic supplied available in third world countries.
I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
April 20, 2023
This picaresque tale chronicles one young woman's seriously funny quest to reinvent herself. In Libya! During the most dangerous era of the Gaddafi regime! You will cheer in amazement at Bernadette Nason wrestles with inner demons while facing down the morality police and the overarching threat of violence. Drenched in the aftermath of colonialism, Tea in Tripoli is a coming of age tale like no other. Nason is brave and witty travel companion who leaves you looking forward to the next trip. -Donna M. Johnson, Author of Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir
July 18, 2017
Bernadette Nason is already known for her storytelling abilities & has proved that this skill transfers to the written word. The book reminds me of some of my own expatriate experiences, but on a more intense level because of the political situation in Libya at the time.
The memories are well described both in the physical aspects as well as the authors deep feelings.
Highly recommended!
The memories are well described both in the physical aspects as well as the authors deep feelings.
Highly recommended!
July 19, 2017
Really enjoyed this book. I entered Gadafi's Libya as an expat. A woman alone in an Arab country in every day living. Bernadette writes with honesty and is wonderfully witty so the stories are not dull. Would recommend it to anyone.
August 11, 2017
Ms. Nason did an excellent job of stripping down to her core in writing about who she was beneath that British stiff upper lip as she took me with her on a wild, crazy and sometimes scary adventure in Libya as a young woman in search of her "better self". Don't miss this Memoir.
Connie Meeker
Connie Meeker
June 29, 2022
Entertaining
This memoir of the authors time in Tripoli was entertaining. She had great stories and a great sense of humor. I could see living like that could give you PTSD. The only problem I had was the book was edited kind of strange in parts. Otherwise I enjoyed the book.
This memoir of the authors time in Tripoli was entertaining. She had great stories and a great sense of humor. I could see living like that could give you PTSD. The only problem I had was the book was edited kind of strange in parts. Otherwise I enjoyed the book.
September 1, 2017
My review on BroadwayWorld:
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.broa...
June 2, 2022
Entertaining and enlightening!
September 13, 2025
easy read, interesting especially if you've lived overseas..
January 19, 2021
Spanning about a year during the 80’s the author took her whole life to not just another country but an entirely different culture! Having been a secretary/administrator during this same time period I found myself recalling a lot of the business world and was impressed with the courage this author possessed. It is evident from her writing that she struggled but also grew a lot as a woman.
June 3, 2019
This book was highly entertaining and a true gem. Having seen Ms. Nason perform and knowing her "voice" made the story so enjoyable. I learned a lot about life in Libya during the 1980s living it through Bernadette and about the struggles of being female in a man's culture. Her life experiences were serious, however, she continually brought some humor to the story.
I highly recommend reading her story; I'm looking forward to her next book coming out soon.
I highly recommend reading her story; I'm looking forward to her next book coming out soon.
July 6, 2020
Truly enjoyed the recollections of Bernadette. An interesting read as I could relate to various of her recollections; as I too lived in Tripoli when I was a baby and my father at the time was working for one of the oil companies and my mother gave birth to my bother in Tripoli and has many memories I grew up with. Very happy I found this book! Thank you Bernadette for sharing your incredible memories!!
November 24, 2020
This book was much different than I expected. I enjoyed it. A year plus in a different culture that was hostile and dangerous. The character is real and you develop a connection to her and feel like you are there with her as she struggles with personal problems and the world she has entered so different from her own. She wanted to find herself and to grow as a person. Does she do that. Maybe.
November 3, 2023
I really related to this book, maybe because I lived overseas (in Spain) at about the same age that the author was when she lived in Tripoli. Often, while reading her memoir, I wanted to shout, "Nooooo! Don't do that!" Alas, we all live and learn. Thanks, Berni, for a good read.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews