Cyprus is my island / When the going’s rough / I would love to find you / Somewhere in a place like that,” says a lyric from David Bowie’s song “Move on” that was released in 1979.

It is not widely known that the great musician’s first wife, Angie Bowie, was born Mary Angela Barnett in a suburb of Nicosia in Cyprus.

Angela Barnett’s father was a mining engineer and ran a mill for Cyprus Mines Corporation. Her mother was Helena Maria Galas. She was educated in Cyprus and Switzerland and the UK. She met David Bowie in London in 1969, at the age of 19 and they were married a year later, and a son a year after that and divorced in 1980.

The Bowie family visited Cyprus often on their vacations.

Angie made David love the island, and as the song he wrote indicates, there were times he found a haven there, away from the ruckus of the music business.

Angie and her son continued to holiday there after the divorce with David in 1980.