Synopses & Reviews
This affectionate study of the Mexican temper is "one of the most charming travel books ever written" (
The Atlantic Monthly).
Before returning to the Old World after World War II, Sybille Bedford resolved to see something more of the New. "I had a great longing to move," she said, "to hear another language, eat new food, to be in a country with a long nasty history in the past and as little present history as possible." And so she set out for Mexico and, incidentally, to write what Bruce Chatwin called the best travel book of the twentieth century, "a book of marvels, to be read again and again and again."
Review
"[O]ne of the great works of travel literature....Buy and read this marvel." Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic review)
Synopsis
Before returning to the Old World after World War II, Sybille Bedford resolved to see something more of the New. "I had a great longing to move," she said, "to hear another language, eat new food, to be in a country with a long nasty history in the past and as little present history as possible." And so she set out for Mexico and, incidentally, to write what Bruce Chatwin called the best travel book of the twentieth century, "a book of marvels, to be read again and again and again."
About the Author
Sybille Bedford was born in 1911, in Charlottenburg, Germany, and was brought up in Italy, England, and France. In 1953, she made her literary debut with A Visit to Don Otavio, and has since published eight other books novels, travel books, classic accounts of criminal trials and other courtroom cases, and an acclaimed biography of her mentor Aldous Huxley. A vice president of English PEN and one of Britain's nine Companions of Literature, Mrs. Bedford lives in London and is currently at work on a memoir.