Book description
Hailed as Newby's 'masterpiece', 'Love and War in the Apennines' is the
gripping real-life story of Newby's imprisonment and escape from an
Italian prison camp during World War II.
After the Italian Armistice of 1943, Eric Newby escaped from the prison
camp in which he'd been held for a year. He evaded the German army by
hiding in the caves and forests of Fontanellato, in Italy's Po Valley.
Against this picturesque backdrop, he was sheltered for three months by
an informal network of Italian peasants, who fed, supported and nursed
him, before his eventual recapture.
'Love and War in the Apennines' is Newby's tribute to the selfless and
courageous people who were to be his saviours and companions during this
troubled time and of their bleak and unchanging way of life. Of the cast
of idiosyncratic characters, most notable was the beautiful local girl
on a bike who would teach him the language, and eventually help him
escape; two years later they were married and would spend the rest of
their lives as co-adventurers. Part travelogue, part escape story and
part romance, this is a mesmerising account of wisdom, courage, humour
and adventure, and tells the story of the early life of a man who would
become one of Britain's best-loved literary adventurers. 'His
masterpiece' Spectator
'Superbly funny … as civilizing, generous and affecting as “Vivere in
Pace”, and the men, women and children, weather and woodsmoke are as
fresh as yesterday' Observer
'A vivid description of Italian village life, full of notable
characters … and the reactions of one sensitive man to being out of the
war in the middle of one' Daily Telegraph
'It is necessary to state with emphasis that this is a very good book
indeed' Times Literary Supplement
'An exciting story, superbly told. And wisdom, courage and generosity
illuminate it' Punch Eric Newby was born in London in 1919. In 1938,
he joined the four-masted Finnish barque Moshulu as an apprentice and
sailed in the last Grain Race from Australia to Europe, by way of Cape
Horn. During World War II, he served in the Black Watch and the Special
Boat Section. In 1942, he was captured and remained a prisoner-of-war
until 1945. He subsequently married the girl who helped him to escape,
and for the next fifty years, his wife Wanda was at his side on many
adventures. After the war, he worked in the fashion business and book
publishing but always travelled on a grand scale, sometimes as the
Travel Editor for the Observer. He was made CBE in 1994 and was awarded
the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Guild of Travel Writers in
2001. Eric Newby died in 2006.
