A detailed and intriguing survey of the region of southern Italy known as Calabria, by British author Norman Douglas, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind.

Travel author Norman Douglas shares his experiences and photographs of Calabria, a beautiful and historic yet secluded region of rural Italy, as it was at the turn of the 20th century. A wonderful guide to a region home to breathtaking landscapes and ancient ruins, Old Calabria contains many details of the region and is described from a perspective of the eloquent and well-informed author. The manners of the locals, the customs and appearance of their villages and farmsteads, and the agriculture of the countryside, are narrated evocatively. Over the centuries Calabria has received migrants from Asia, Africa and elsewhere, and the profile of the people - who clearly descend from these migrants - that Douglas has much interest. The cultural and religious customs of Calabria are shown to have evolved somewhat in isolation to the rest of Italy, and life is shown to move slowly and place great emphasis upon traditions and the Roman Catholic faith.

The bishop was feeling rather sea-sick. Confoundedly sea-sick, in fact. An Anglican bishop, on recuperative leave from his African diocese, alights at the island of Nepenthe for a short stay on his passage to England. Soon he is caught up in the wild and exuberant antics of visitors and residents. Norman Douglas's famed, and infamous, novel of Capri is a hedonistic journey and an unforgettable classic.

At the time when southern Italy was an isolated and underdeveloped region, Douglas wrote this 1915 travel guide to bring the beauty that he found in Calabria to the reading public. Inspired by the landscape, unique cultural traditions, and proximity to history, he found even traveling on long mule trails to be an enjoyable part of the journey rather than an inconvenience. Written in a chatty, conversational tone, Old Calabria will be of interest to armchair travelers and to anyone who enjoys stories of everyday adventure. British writer NORMAN DOUGLAS (1868-1952) wrote a number of books, including South Wind (1917).

Norman Douglas, one of the 20th century's great travellers in Italy, was for most of his life inextricably, passionately, connected to the Bay of Naples. This breathtaking sweep of sea and coastline - dominated by Vesuvius and with Pozzuoli and Sorrento standing sentinel - was Douglas' first experience of Italy. It was here, on the island of Capri, that he died, some 55 years after first buying a villa in Naples. Siren Land, Douglas' first travel book, is a homage to a part of the world that captivated him more than any other. Weaving the myths of the Sirens into the landscape and history of the region, Douglas writes with knowledge and an irrepressible exuberance of the past and the present, of legends and archaeology, folklore and daily life, patron saints, local ghosts, wine and the wind. As the summer draws to a close, Douglas' prose becomes suffused with a melancholy tinged with excitement at what still remains to be discovered: 'relics of Roman rule, of old Hellas, or medieval romance... These are the delights of Siren Land'. 'What makes Siren Land exceptional is the quality of the telling. Weaving scholarship, impressions, fact and fantasy into an intricate fabric as enchantingly entertaining and full of human interest as the best of fairy tales or ancient myths. One of the most memorable books of its genre' - Mark Holloway, in his introduction to Siren Land.

Travel author Norman Douglas shares his experiences and photographs of Calabria, a beautiful and historic yet secluded region of rural Italy, as it was at the turn of the 20th century. A wonderful guide to a region home to breathtaking landscapes and ancient ruins, Old Calabria contains many details of the region and is described from a perspective of the eloquent and well-informed author. The manners of the locals, the customs and appearance of their villages and farmsteads, and the agriculture of the countryside, are narrated evocatively. Over the centuries Calabria has received migrants from Asia, Africa and elsewhere, and the profile of the people - who clearly descend from these migrants - that Douglas has much interest. The cultural and religious customs of Calabria are shown to have evolved somewhat in isolation to the rest of Italy, and life is shown to move slowly and place great emphasis upon traditions and the Roman Catholic faith.

This is a new release of the original 1929 edition.