Rarsews:
Roman street
ftalian Shabches


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Cutting from issue dated..
Roman Pictures
MAURICE ROWDON: A Roman Street.
160pp. Gollancz. 21s.
UGo ENRICO PAOLI: Rome. Its People,
Life and Customs. 336pp. Longmans.
Living in Rome and enjoying contem-
life there with infectious zest,
BERO Rowdon can also look back without
nostalgia on the city's past. The trans-
formation scene of recent years is described
as Mr. Rowdon comes across it. He
watches his neighbours with the same obser-
vant and appreciative understanding he
does changes of street and shop. He a5 an
amateur of medieval Rome. Only in that
he feels, do you get real breath
Christianity, as in some of the Rhine-
towns of Germany He reflects that
the air once have been dusty in the
summer mRo Romel like desert air with breaths
from the séa all the time and he goes
that a glimpse that Rone
RAMERE have been AsdE in the ofih years of
the nineteenth century. This leads him to
pine trees sprouting out of the Caracalla
ruins. Shelley sitting under the arches of
the old baths, and to Goethe's drawings.
His comments on Italian and Sicilian
wines (not invariably, he thinks, made from
the grape) are delicious. So are some of
the incidents-a hair-cut gives him a chance
to get. a grateful laugh from any but a
stern unbending reader. There is no fear
in him of generalizations- solidarity
between the. common people is unknown
Italy Italy continues offer the
bel picture we have today of the act of
conversion to Christianity Mr. Rowdon
is such good company that he could have
written at greater length without risk of
becoming tedious.
Dr. Paoli's Rome was first published
as Vita Romana in 1940 and
translated into four languages. ME D.
Macnaghten, a classics master at
has done this excellent English version of
a guide to the people, life and customs of
ancient Rome. It is well illustrated and
will
who enjoy paperback trans-
lations plear Hiwh authors as well as more
specialist readers.


ITALIAN SKSECHES by Meurice Rowdon
21st March 1963.
"A mdst enjoyable book: conparable with Henry Smes's Italian Hours and
D.H. Larrencef's Twilight in Italy."
MICHATL INNES
J.I.M. Stewart)
ITALIAN SKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
19th June 1963.
"Recalls Lawrence' 's Twilight inItaly" almost uncannily.. The perfect
antidote to the effusive outsider's travel book. The results are
superfically glum, but in retrospect and artistically exhilarating,
because so often piercingly accurate and so far under the skin of
everyday appearances that it is really a new reappraisal almost ef a
new country.. Extreme spiritual delicacy as well as physical
sensibility,"
4 ISABEL QUIGLY (GUARDIAN)
"Full of the most delightful charecter sketches. Most enjoyable."
BRITISH WEÉKLY
ITALIAN SKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
21st June 1963.
"It is a real pleasure to come across a quite original book entitled
Italian Sketches. Mr. Rowdon is astonishingly acute in recofgnising in
the Italians a quality which impels them to spare foreigners
embarrassment or mortification.. It is a relief to read this factual
book about Italy. I derived much pleasure from this book and
recommend it warmly."
HAROLD NICOLSON
(The Observer)
"Only for those who love Italy with asch an indecent obsession that
they positively welcome an author who is weak enough to be
similarly infatuated but strong enough to list a hundred re'asons
why he shouldn't be. - If it were possible to explain why Mr.
Rowdon's ideas are so acceptable, it would be possible to explain
Italy - and if this were possible, nobody would write books about
Italy any more.
All books about Italy are frantic attempts to try
and understand the nature of its fascination, and if Mr. Rowdon's
book is one of the best attempts that has been made for many years,
this is because he tries so deeply to understand and must excite the
sympathy of anyone else who has tried to do so."
NIGEL DENNIS (Sunday Telegraph)
ITALIAN SKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
20thr June 1963.
"When Mr. Rowdon writes as well as that, the delighted reader forgives him
all his prejudice."
JOHN RAYMOND (Sunday Times)
ITAITAN KI :
by u Rovron
3rd July 1963.
Tr: ites superbly d shads E light on Italy that crne to me es a complete
surpris se.'
- S.P.B.MATS (Oxford il)


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In Evil Times
New Statesman
Arabia Felix. By THORKILD HANSEN. McFarlane. Trans-
10, Great Turnstile, London, W.C.1.
lated by James and Kathleen
Collins. 30s.
Cutting from issue dated...
Three Victorian Travellers. By THOMAS
ASSAD. Routledge. 25s.
Forks and Hope. By ELSPETH HUXLEY.
Chatto. 30s.
An African Student in China. By EMMANUEL
du 2o
JOHN HEVI. Pall Mall. 25s.
WSTATESMAN : 14 FEBRUARY 1964
A Roman Street. By MAURICE ROWDON. girls show up or when they are smuggling than we'd have dared, Wodehouse and Lewis
Gollancz. 21s.
sweets-to slave-girls through a port-hole.
Carroll are a closed book to: them, they don't
Whether they are discovering America,
Niebuhr gained the confidence of the Arabs fall in love as we know it. Bright and patron-
banning the slave trade or promoting equal-
without affectation. He treated Lem precisely ising, like a snobbish teacher at a slum school,
ity, Scandinavians seem always some years in as equals, adopting their language, their dress she offers plenty of useful information, blames
advance of the rest of us. In 1761 the Danes and their modest way of life, 'renourcing his the Kikuyu (not the 1955 Royal Commission)
determined upon a positive and progressive own self, says Hansen. The last 200 years in for small-scale farming and still suspects
national exploit, 'despite the cares of govern- Asia and Africa have been based on precisely there's something wrong with black men's
ment in these evil times', as their King put it. opposite principles.' But Niebuhr wasn't genes. She has used Mannoni's psychological
Europe was stiff with a militarism that had posing; his attitude was the natural result of study of disaffection in Madagascar as if it
spread out even to India and America; there his good manners and efficiency. The three were propaganda for white supremacy; and
must be somewhere else to go, something else English travellers in Professor Assad's book she is too prone to generalise about, say, the
to do. Therefore the King dispatched a great wore Arab clothes to look at themselves. A position of "African' women.
scientific expedition to Arabia Felix, the great deal has been written by, and about, all Emmanuel John Hevi, a Ghanaian, has a
happy land. Sensible men were carefully three Burton, Blunt and Doughty. One higher regard for his female compatriots than
trained, diplomatic and inter-university co- prime aspect of these xenophiles has been Miss Huxley's book might suggest. He is quite
operation was assured; yet running through plucked out by the American author, their lyrical about them, finding it hard to meet
all this cool sanity was a thread of romance, Englishness. C. M. Doughty hoped to purify anyone abroad who is adequately 'feminine'.
and with romance came mania and chaos. himself and his style, to bring his country and But that is only one of the disadvantages that
Thorkild Hansen's sad, elegant account of this its language back to an Old Testament auster- this liberal traveller found in Communist
terrible journey suggests that 'it is only in evil ity. To this end, he would let the Arabs bully China: He is an egalitarian and he really ex-
times that men dream of voyaging to Arabia him, but Richard Burton preferred to bully. pected a classless society there. The usual
Felix.' Happiness was not achieved. The jour- He would revive sex and toughness in his race problem recurs: he resented receiving the
ney lasted six years and only one man, Carsten
'real fighting people', compared with the privileges of an expatriate but he did not want
Niebuhr, survived.
Arabs and strengthen the Empire. Wilfrid to share the deplorable conditions of the
Still they got some work done, even though Scawen Blunt loathed the Empire and chose to natives. This angry book should not be dis-
most of it was neglected and went to waste
pretend that Arab ways were superior.
missed as propaganda, designed for the capi-
because, suggests Hansen, the Danish mem-
For Élspeth Huxley, the spirit of Blunt is talist world. It is meant to dissuade Ghana-
bers of the party were inferior to the rest and still alive. She quotes him as the forerunner of ians from following the Chinese pattern.
brought home no national glory. Besides their all the evil left-wingers who have spoiled East Much as Maurice Rowdon loves Rome, he
work, Hansen has discovered SO much about Africa when things were going SO nicely. Still, is using the alien situation as if he were one of
the explorers as people that his book reads like she's getting very 'tolerant. A BOAC steward those Victorian Arabists: it provides à side-
a novel: a pessimistic allegory in which two was telling me recently how much Nairobi light on himself and his society. His roots are
hero-scientists battle through the barbarity of has improved: I used to feel apologetic, ser- in dingy South London. He distrusts the
a strange land but suffer most from the vile to the blacks, because of the whites. But 'pagan clatter and spectacle' of Rome, a çity
-conventions, indolence and pettiness of their they don't shout "Boy!" any more. They which means to him both fascism - very
own people. (It seems appropriate that the one almost whisper."That is what Miss Huxley is broadly defined and 'strong nerves', a
humanist on the expedition should have pur- doing in her account of modern East Africa, quality he much admires. The conflict makes
chased arsenic to poison the scientists.) The just whispering: they never invented the his book vivid and sometimes exciting.
first hero is a brilliant young Swede, Forsskal, clock, they're tougher with their own people
D. A.N.JONES
so agreeable to humble people and so fierce
to the pretentious. Linnaeus named a stinging-
nettle after him much to the fury of Forss-
kal's friend, the engineer Niebuhr. They are
an odd combination, the disdainful Swede,
whose work was wasted, and the modest, prac-
tical peasant Niebuhr who did so much, out-
side his own discipline, and returned home
alone to be forgotten. It is pleasant to find
this energetic pair relaxing, when the dancing-




TLS
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PRESS
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STREET SCENES
MAURICE ROWDON: A Roman
The Observer
Street. 160pp. Gollancz. 21s.
22, Tudor Street, London, E.C.4.
Mr. Rowdon has all the qualities
needed to prompt an affection for
Cutting from issue dated...
him (among so many rivals) as a
writer about Rome, His feeling for
the city is a nice blend of love and
impatience, he saves himself from
bouts of nostalgia with sudden snorts
Roman roundabout
of faith in Rome's ability to consume
and even be nourished by modern
A ROMAN STREET By Maurice players, the priest who blesses the
materialism. He can describe what
"Rowdon. (Gollancz. 21s.)
house. He spends his leisure with the
he sees and hears with an unpreten-
THERE are always plenty of books locals in the trattoria-which has not
tious immediacy that brings a scene
about Rome, the newest and oldest yet In got this neon lighting.
instantly and enduringly to life. He
of the world capitals seems almost effort, he way, has without any apparent
is full of variety. At one moment
to obsess us. But there is now a how ordinary built a and picture to of
crankily obsessed
the
people
Yel
with, say,
change emphasis. Holy City' every word of it rings true. In
chemical additives in wine and pasta,
books and sun and wine books proliferation of Rome, people, the
at the next he 1s thoughtfully and
have gone out of fashion. Monu- suburbs, are changing. The like
generously explaining how the
ments remain and daily life, perhaps statuesque women of tradition dark have
Romans have come to be as they are,
helped Mr Rowdon by the is cinema, a first-class is coming daily-life in. turned into lithe blondes and chest-
His style is extremely simple: : short
writer and all the Romanists will nuts (often natural), the lounging men
words and short sentences, yet every
want to read him.
into hurrying Rowdon figures with briefcases.
now and then he takes off on aj purely
He starts out from his terraced flat Gothic Mr tradition prefers to the simple and
literary flight of fancy that carries
up 90 stairs of a founteenth- to Baroque grandeur. He paganism and
the reader with it in hilarious or
sixteenth-century palazzo in the heart ancient Etruscans as well extols the the
tender acceptance. Elsewhere a
of old Papal Rome. He looks at Christians; the smile of their as
pawkily embittered longueur is
the lackadaisical proprietress and at is the first sign of
This gods is
followed by some crashing generali-
the ing concierge from fegato who, or Ithink, liver. He is gets suffer- to more than an echo JOTL Lawrence
zation about the Roman attitude to
know, or know of, other inhabitants and I am not quite convinced. But
art, sex, learning or the church.
-the Calabrian woman who, re- what of it us in of a descriptive writer who
The heart of the book is about the
hearses blasphemous plays, the reminds Lawrence?
street where he lives, the tenants of
deafening off-key singer, the juke-box
Bernard Wall
the neighbouring apartments, the
men and women who work in the
nearby shops and trattorie. This is
amusing, exact and relaxedly done.
But it is in the combination of this
ruminative core with sudden forays
of speculation, moments when he
pounds his desk with rage, or peers
closely into someone's window that
the special interest of the book
resides. We get to know Rome, We
would like to get to know Mr.
Rowdon.


DURRANT'S PRESS CUTTINGS
28-38, Mount Pleasset, Loadon, W.0.1.
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Western Mail
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Cutting irom issue dated..
BOOKS IN
BRIEF
A ROMAN STREET, hy Maurice Row-
don, Gollancz; 21s. Zestful and infor-
mative Pssay on the contemporary
Iralian scene. Well written and laced
with sparkling wit.
LAW AND LIFE by GD Roberts,
QC. Allen: 25s. The autobiography
ofone of our foremost lawyers, who
has taken part in many major trials,
including the
war crime
trais. A spiendid dermoad into our
legal system.
THIS FOR CAROLINE, by Doris
Leslie Heinemann; 21s. A historical
novel designed to present Lady
Caroune lamb in B better light than
usual. Whether or not you agree
with the interpretation you wili fnd
he novel skufully written and
immensely entertaining.


Tinues M.lapt.
STREET SCENES
MAURICE ROWDON: A Roman
Street. 160pp. Gollancz 21s.
Mt Rowdon-has-att the qualities/
needed to prompt an affection for/
him (among so many rivals) as a
writer about Rome, His feeling for
the city is a nice blend of love and
impatience, he saves himself from
bouts of nostalgia with sudden snorts
of faith in Rome's abilityto consume
and even be nourished. by modern
materialism. He can describe what
he sees and hears with an unpreten-
tious immediacy that brings a scene
instantly and enduringly to life. He
is full of variety. At one moment
crankily obsessed with, say, the
chemical additives in wine and pasta,
at the next he IS thoughtfully and-
SSAS
generously explaining how the
Romans have come to be as they are,
His style is extremely simple: short
words and short sentences, yet every
now and then he takes off on a purely
literary flight of fancy that carries
the reader with it in hilarious or
tender acceptance, Elsewhere a.
pawkily embittered longueur is
followed by some crashing generali-
zation about the Roman attitude to
art, sex, learning or the church.
The heart of the book is about the
street where he lives, the tenants.of
the neighbouring apartments, the
men and women who work in the
nearby shops and trattorie. This is
amusing, exact and relaxedly done.
But it is in the combination' of this
ruminative core with sudden forays
of speculation, moments when he
pounds his desk with rage, or peers
closely into someone's window that
the special interest of the book
resides. We get to know Rome, We
would like to get_ toknow Mr.
Rowdon.




vour Foilier
Tinuis M.lapet.
STREET SCENES
MAURICE ROWDON: A Roman
Street. 160pp. Gollancz 21s.
Mr. Rowdon-has-ati the qualities/
needed to prompt an affection for/
him (among SO many rivals) as a
writer about Rome. His feeling for
the city is a nice blend of love and
impatience, he saves himself from
bouts of nostalgia with sudden snorts
of faith in Rome's ability to consume
and even be nourished. by modern
materialism. He can describe what
he sees and hears with an unpreten-
tious immediacy that brings a scene
instantly and enduringly to life. He
is full of variety. At one moment
crankily obsessed with, say, the
chemical additives in wine and pasta,
at. the next he 1S thoughtfully and
iF-S
generously explaining how the
Romans have comet to be as they are,
His style is extremely simple: short
words and short sentences, yet every
now and then he takes off on a purely
literary flight of fancy that carries
the reader with it in hilarious or
tender acceptance. Elsewhere a.
pawkily embittered longueur is
followed by some crashing generali-
zation about the Roman attitude to
art, sex, learning or the church.
The heart of the book is about the
street where he lives, the tenants.of
the neighbouring apartments, the
men and women who work in the
nearby shops and trattorie. This is
amusing, exact and relaxedly done.
But it is in the combination of this
ruminative core with sudden forays
of speculation, moments when he
pounds his desk with rage, or peers
closely into someone's window that
the special interest of the book
resides. We get to know Rome, We
would like to get_toknow Mr.
Rowdon.


ITARTAN SKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
17th July 1963.
"All this is said with such deep relish for hunar. idiosyncracy and so keen an eye
for the conio (the last chapter describin, the author's victorious battle of wits 5
with a shfity Roman landlord is the funniest thing I have read for a long time)
and also, every now and then, with such flashi 6 intelligence - in short, in so
engeging a wa thet one keeps on turaing the pages, despite a recurrent impulse
to throw the : ook out of the window hecause of its frequent, often flagrant,
exagyeratits auc unfairness. Time and agai : I found myself saying, Yes, he's on to
sasetairg t-re.
THE TAPLET
"Only for those who love Italy with duch an indecent obsession that
they positively welcome an author who is weak enough to be
similarly infatuated but strong enough to list a hundred re'asons
why he shouldn't be. If it were possible to explain why Mr.
Rowdon's ideas are so acceptable, it would be possible to explain
Italy - and if this were possible, nobody would write books about
Italy any more. All books about Italy are frantic attempts to try
and understand the nature of its fascination, and if Mr. Rowdon's
book is one of the best attempts that has been made for many years,
this is because he tries so deeply to understand and must excite the
sympathy of anyone else who has tried to do so."
NIGEL DENNIS (Sunday Telegraph)
'ALIAN SKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
20thr June 1963.
hen Mr. Rowdon writes as well as that, the delighted reader forgives him
1 his prejudice."
JOHN RAYMOND (Sunday Times)
A ROMAN STREST by Haurice Rowdon
13th February 1964.
"Living in Rome and enjoying contemporary life there with an infectious zest, Mr.
Rowdon can also look back without nostalgia on the city's past. The transformation
scene of recent years is described as Mr. Rowdon comes across it. He watches his
neighbours with the same observant and appreciative underst tanding as he does changes
of street and shop. He is an amateur of medieval Rome...He reflects that the air must
once have been dusty in the summer in Rome like desert air with breaths from the sea
all the time and he goes on to suggest that a last glimpse of that Rome must have
been had in the first years of the nineteenth century. This leads him to pine trees
sprouting out of the Caracalla ruins. Shelley sitting under the arches of the old
baths, and to Goethe's drawings. His comments on Italian and Sicilian wines
are delicious. So are some of the incidents - a hair-cut gives him a chance to
get a grateful laugh from any but a stern unbending reader... Mr. Rowdon is such good
company that he could have written at greater length without risk of becoming
tedious.
e THE TIMES


ITARASSKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
17th July 1963.
"All this is said with such deep relish for hunai. idiosyncracy and so keen an eye
for the conio (the last chapter describin; the author's victorious battle of wits *
with a shfity Ronan landlord is the funniest thing I have read for & long time)
and also, every now and then, vith such flashi 45 intelligence - in short, in so
engeging a way that one keeps on turaing the pages, despite a recurrent impulse
to throw the : ook: out of the window hecause of its frequent, often flagrant,
exagyeratits auc unfairness. Time and agai : I found nyself saying, Yes, he's on to
sasetairg twre.
THE TABLET
FJ. unn
"Only for those who love Italy with auch an indecent obsession that
they positively welcome an author who is weak enough to be
similarly infatuated but strong enough to list a hundred re'asons
why he shouldn't be. If it were possible to explain why Mr.
Rowdon's ideas are so acceptable, it would be possible to explain
Italy - and if this were possible, nobody would write books about
Italy any more. All books about Italy are frantic attempts to try
and understand the nature of its fascination, and if Mr. Rowdon's
book is one of the best attempts that has been made for many years,
this is because he tries so deeply to understand and must excite the
sympathy of anyone else who has tried to do so."
NIGEL DENNIS (Sunday Telegraph)
ALIAN SKETCHES by Maurice Rowdon
20thr June 1963.
hen Mr. Rowdon writes as well as that, the delighted reader forgives him
1 his prejudice."
JOHN RAYMOND (Sunday Times)
A ROMAN STREST by Maurice Rowdon
13th February 1964.
"Living in Rome and enjoying contemporary life there with an infectious zest, Mr.
Rowdon can also look back wit thout nostalgia on the city's past. The transformation
scene of recent years is described as Mr. Rowdon comes across it. He watches his
neighbours with the same observant and appreciative understanding as he does changes
of street and shop. He is an amateur of medieval Rome...He reflects that the air must
once have been dusty in the summer in Rome like desert air with breaths from the sea
all the time and he goes on to suggest that a last glimpse of that Rome must have
been had in the first years of the nineteenth century. This leads him to pine trees
sprouting out of the Caracalla ruins. Shelley sitting under the arches of the old
bat ths, and to Goethe's drawings. His comments on Italian and Sicilian wines
are delicious. So are some of the incidents a a hair-cut gives him a chance to
get a grateful laugh from any but a stern unbending reader... Mr. Rowdon is such good
company that he could have written at greater length without risk of becoming
tedious.' n
a THE TIMES