Old Calabria

In this 'full-bodied book' - as Douglas himself called it - he gathered together the fruits of many visits to the toe of Italy - that savage peninsular of mountains and forests, where eastern origins can be read in the features of the people and where once even a bishop might have been a brigand chief. Equipped with an almost inexhaustible fund of erudition, he conducts the reader from the promontory of Gargano, linked in ancient times with far Byzantium, to the tip of Aspromonte, Garibaldi's battleground and fastness of the brigand Musolino. Recorded in Douglas's strong but simple prose, the ardent life and unremitting poverty, the language, history, and customs of Europe's most colourful extremity are placed in safe-keeping for all time.

Published 1962, Peregrine Book, Y14.

Binding of book is intact. Two large tears, on front cover of book, also foxing around edges, heaviest on spine, and on back cover. Tear on top of spine as well. Some foxing and shelfwear around edges of book, most evident on bottom edge. Joints a little fragile. Notes in ballpoint ink cover final page of book. Some foxing on certain pages, otherwise pages in good condition.