They Went to Portugal: A Travellers Portrait | Rose Macaulay

From the author of the beloved novel The Towers of Trebizond, a book about Portugal that is part travelogue, part history and wholly personal.

Henry Fielding sailed to Portugal with his household in search of a cure for dropsy, jaundice and asthma. The rather more alluring promise of orange-scented and wine-soaked afternoons was what drew fellow novelist William Beckford to its shores. Byron, having enjoyed the landscape was sent into a black rage, his companions making several guesses to the cause, and wrote vehemently of the country in his poetry.

Rose Macaulay, meanwhile, first travelled to Lisbon in March 1943 to escape the misery of London and loss of her bombed flat. Turning to letters, diaries and travelogues, she brought together the reactions of some of the many British travellers in whose footsteps she now trod.

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Daunt Books