Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

This book about Yugoslavia is my favourite work of travel writing, all the more remarkable for being written during the Blitz, amid the sound of bombs raining over London.

It is half-a-million words long and it deals with a country that doesn’t exist anymore – but don’t let that put you off. Historians and critics have called Black Lamb and Grey Falcon the greatest travel book of the twentieth century and I agree.

Rebecca West discovered Yugoslavia on the eve of the Second World War because – in the growing certainty of the apocalypse which was facing Europe – she… show more.

Don't be put off by the sobering dedication to this thick tome ("To my friends in Yugoslavia, who are now all dead or enslaved"): Rebecca West's record of travels through the Balkans between the world wars is an exuberant magnum opus that will immerse you in the (literally) Byzantine history and minute details of a fascinating place and time. If you like your humor bone-dry, she’d often really funny, and you’ll relish the company of her fearsomely powerful mind: her deftness and insight in describing people and places seem almost superhuman.

Though she admits that the book is so long… show more.

This is the second masterpiece on my list. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a timeless depiction of the Balkans that does not require an update even though it was originally published in 1941. West said her intention was “to show the past side by side with the present it created,” which she does by crafting vignettes like women gossiping while selling their vegetables at market that weave into a historical sweep – travel writing of the highest order. She captured the rich but clashing cultures of the Balkans so well that when war broke out in 1993 hers was… show more.