DIVERSIONS IN SICILY

Evening Star, Issue 20346, 30 November 1929, Page 25

DIVERSIONS IN SICILY

‘Diversions in Sicily’ is from the pen of the late Mr Henry Festing Jones, who was a friend of Samuel Butler, and an author of repute. He travelled extensively with Butler in Italy and other parts of the Continent, and on tho latter’s death wrote much about him, including a memoir of tho author of ‘Erewhon.’ ‘Diversions in Sicily’ was first published in 1909, and it has now been printed in Jonathan Cape’s Travellers’ Library series. Sicily is a strange place, with its medieval manners and customs still prevailing, and the bitterness of its hates and feuds unabated. Sicily is said to have the most varied history of any country in Europe, and it has passed in turn since 1000 me. under the rule of tho Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Normans. Germans, Spaniards, until it became an Italian State. It is not surprising, then, that this Mediterranean island should be a perennial_ source of attraction. ‘ Diversions in Sicily ’ is an entertaining book. Mr Jones’s many gifts were employed in the making of it, conspicuous among them being his humour and his ability in recording his impressions of a country aloof and wild and a people untamed and wayward.