Keeping up with the Lawrences: Sicily, Sea and Sardinia revisited
I've never been sure about DH Lawrence; read 'Lady Chatterley' when I was a student and leafed through a few others but never really got it. So, when a well-meaning friend, aware of my interest in all things Italian, sent me a copy of 'Keeping up with the Lawrences', I was more than a little sceptical.As the author explains in his introduction, I too never knew that Lawrence wrote some travel books and lived in Sicily for a while. And though I've been to both Sicily and Sardinia, I'd never heard of Lawrence's 'Sea and Sardinia'. He's not even mentioned in any of my guidebooks to Sicily.The premise is simple. In 'Keeping up with the Lawrences' Niall Allsop and his nephew - Neff, whose black and white images embellish the text - follow Lawrence's footsteps (as described in 'Sea and Sardinia') from Sicily, through Sardinia and back to Sicily, each night staying in the same town or city as Lawrence and generally using the same modes of transport between overnight stops. Lawrence's words and thoughts are their constant companion.Lawrence travelled in 1921 so naturally the world has moved on a bit and today's icons, the iPod, telecommunications masts and high-speed travel, are in sharp contrast to the awful food and woeful overnight accommodation that Lawrence and his German wife, Frieda, seem to have endured.Also, Lawrence clearly travelled in turbulent times, the origins of the Second World War were being fashioned everywhere he went; today's Europe is generally at peace and part of a global community where, the writer argues, 'individuality and conventionality can be one and the same thing'.Social and political comment and comparisons apart, this book is about the people and places that Niall and Neff met or observed along the way; DHL obviously had more fodder to feed his descriptive gene than NA had aboard today's impersonal buses and trains. Nevertheless there are characters and their stories aplenty - the story of Red on the ferry to Sardinia, Neff's 'sniff test' and the Great Mandas Kidnapping are my personal favourites.Like 'Sea and Sardinia' the book is written in the present tense and, like Lawrence, NA gives his characters appropriate nicknames to protect the innocent - it's another sign of changing times that probably none of the people Lawrence wrote about ever knew they gave colour and form to a certain Englishman's jingoistic travelogue. In today's hi-tech world such anonymity is almost impossible to imagine.NA and young Neff seem to have had a lot of fun along the way - from the amount of wine they appear to have consumed it's a wonder the book ever got written. I really enjoyed eavesdropping on their nine-day adventure and more than once wished they'd taken me along with them. It's generally a fast and furious read and there's more than a few laughs to be had en route (seemingly a rarity in the DHL version) and, just when you're beginning to get a little weary with this or that 'out-the-window' description, it's as if the writer knows you've had enough and quickly moves on.Once or twice I wondered whether the book was conceived as an attempt to boost the travel industry in Sardinia and Sicily or perhaps the aim was to help sell Lawrence's 'Sea and Sardinia'. If the latter, it worked for me, but I'm glad I read this version first. Of course it doesn't really matter for 'Keeping up with the Lawrences' stands alone as a quirky travelogue, albeit one woven round the experiences of the cantankerous Lawrence.If Niall Allsop and Neff ever do decide to revisit Hannibal's crossing of the Alps (a jape frivolously referred to in 'Keeping up with the Lawrences'), then I hope this review will guarantee me an invite. --Amazon.comThis book, 'Keeping Up With The Lawrences', is a delight to read and goes down as easily as a glass of good Sicilian red.When Niall Allsop, with his nephew photographer 'Neff', decided to follow the same route, and in the same timescale as D H Lawrence's journey in 1921, it turned out to be quite a challenge.I haven't read D H Lawrence's book 'Sea And Sardinia' yet, so cannot compare the two journeys, but Niall Allsop is a keen observer of the people he meets and some of his descriptions are hugely entertaining. In Sardinia, he and 'Neff' were 'kidnapped' by the mayor of one small town who turned out to be a Lawrence aficionado. Their 8 hour 'kidnapping' included a tour of the local station and lots of bars and restaurants.I will read Lawrence's book 'Sea And Sardinia', but having read several of his novels ('Sons And Lovers' and 'Women In Love') I'm sure it will not be half as entertaining as 'Keeping Up With The Lawrences'. --Amazon.co.ukThis is a great read based on a felicitous idea. Niall Allsop and his nephew (Neff) enjoy many an amusing escapade as they follow the Lawrences' route. Niall has a happy knack of being able to talk to anybody he meets, from Proud Man in Taormina to Ruddy and his friends in Sardinia, even when he has to communicate in what he calls his sledgehammer Italian.He is also able, as an outsider but an essentially 'simpatico' one, to illuminate the Italian psyche (and indeed the psyches of other nationals he meets on the way) in an amusing and revealing manner.He writes simply but entertainingly, and I really felt I got to know the spirit of the places he visited. His penchant for the odd glass of wine or three, ably supported by Neff, had me reaching for my own glass as hIs journey rattled along. I learnt a lot and laughed a lot. --Amazon.com