In January 1921 DH Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, left their Taormina home in Sicily and set off on a nine-day excursion to and through Sardinia and back to Sicily via mainland Italy. At the end of the year 'Sea and Sardinia', Lawrence's fast-paced account of their journey, was published in New York by Thomas Seltzer. 'Keeping up with DH Lawrence' is Niall Allsop's contemporary account of making the same journey, as far as possible keeping to the same route, the same timescale, the same mode of transport and the same overnight stops as the Lawrences. Like 'Sea and Sardinia', 'Keeping up with...

In September 1999 Niall Allsop and his wife Kay flew to Pisa and stepped onto Italian soil for the first time. Within six months they returned and therafter they visited Italy at least twice a year, usually to the most southerly provinces of Apulia and Calabria and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. They knew they holidayed differently to other people and in Italy, despite the lack of language, they found themselves somehow drawn into people's lives and homes; they had experiences and encounters that seemed to pass others by. 'Stumbling through Italy' is the irreverent chronicle of their...

In July 2008 Niall Allsop and his wife Kay returned to the UK after their third holiday in Calabria near the small hill-top town of Santa Severina; the plan was to return the following summer. Ten weeks later, their left-hand drive Clio bursting at the seams, they left their home in south-west England and headed for the coast on the first leg of their journey back to Calabria to live. Scratching the toe of Italy continues the story from where Stumbling through Italy left off and explains how their move to Italy came about, the logistics of the move itself and what happened next. It is the...

Salvatore Vona is the chef at Le Puzelle, an 'agriturismo' (converted farmhouse accommodation) near the small hill-top town of Santa Severina in the Calabrian province of Crotone. As well as providing holiday accommodation, Le Puzelle is well-known locally for its cuisine and many Calabrians and others travel considerable distances to wine and dine at Salvatore Vona's table. Salvatore's book of recipes, 'A Taste of Calabria', began life as the third edition of his popular 'I Sapori delle Puzelle' (literally the tastes and flavours of the Puzelle) and reflects the demand, expressed by many of...

In January 1971 a young, inexperienced teacher took up his position as Deputy Head of a Primary School in a small commuter-belt village not far from London. The School was not what Nigel Allsop was expecting. The Head of St Patrick's, George Snaith, was involved in a number of unorthodox and illegal practices, only one of which is the focus of this book. In March that year Allsop witnessed Snaith helping two children during a County-administered test and realised also that the same two children had clearly had unauthorised access to the detail of the papers beforehand ... courtesy of their...

In June 2013, Niall Allsop was diagnosed with prostate cancer and, like many others, survived the experience. He didn't battle against it, fight it, beat it or any of the other cliches that some people love to use ... he just had prostate cancer, was treated for it and got better.
Though, as you might guess, it wasn't quite as simple as that.
For a start, though the range of treatment options open to him were just the same as those available in the United States or the UK, Niall's experience was a little different in that it all took place in southern of Italy and Rome. That said,...

Calabria is not a guide to Calabria but rather a book about Calabria.
Since 1777, when Henry Swinburne, first travelled in Calabria in search of Magna Graecia (Calabria's Greek heritage), and then wrote about his experiences, there have been a further dozen travellers, including one woman, who have written travelogues in English (as opposed to travel guides) about Italy's remote toe.
Some, like Edward Lear, George Gissing and Norman Douglas, became well-known literary figures in other fields but most were just educated people with time on their hands for whom...

Nel 2012, Niall Allsop ha viaggiato per gli Stati Uniti, facendo visita a discendenti di famiglie calabresi emigrate in America: alcune avevano lasciato la Calabria agli inizi del Novecento, altre solo negli anni Sessanta.
Tanto e stato gia scritto sulle difficolta economiche, le privazioni e i disastri naturali, che costrinsero 20 milioni di italiani del Sud, in particolare calabresi e siciliani, a lasciare la loro patria per nuove terre, molto spesso gli Stati Uniti. Ma molto poco e stato scritto sulle loro storie personali e su che cosa abbia significato per gente comune - che aveva...