Frederica Carrington was a British writer who made her home in Corsica for over half her life. She became one of the twentieth century's foremost scholars of the island's culture and history. Her prolific writings offer deep insights into Corsican life and traditions.
Recounting the archaic beliefs of rural Corsica, with its witchcraft and its vendetta system, viewing Genoese architecture, or commenting on the modern "pleasure invasion", this book also evokes the scenery, the mountains and olive trees, the heady scent of the maquis and the austere beauty of the granite villages of Corsica. This book won the Heinemann Prize.
A travel book that reveals Corsica as a vital element in Europe: a highly individualistic island culture whose people have nurtured their love of freedom and political justice, as well as their pride, hospitality and poetry.