Old Puglia

Praise for Desmond Seward

‘It is hard to imagine a historian more in command of his subject’
The Independent on A Brief History of the War of the Roses

‘His scholarship is great, his theme both interesting and largely unexplored and his judgment sound’
The Economist on The Monks of War

Puglia is the heel stretching down from the spur of the Italian boot, boasting beautiful landscapes, old cities with Romanesque architecture. Far from inaccessible, until recently it was seldom visited by tourists. Today, however, Puglia is becoming fashionable as an ‘an alternative Tuscany’; travel supplements laud its beaches and cuisine; supermarkets stock Apulian wine, oil and pasta. Yet almost nothing about the region has been published in English since the days of Norman Douglas and the Sitwells. ‘Holiday histories’ of Tuscany abound, but there is no popular introduction to Puglian history, not even in Italian. This book has been written to fill the gap by providing a simple, readable guide of the region.

DESMOND SEWARD was born in Paris and educated in Ampleforth and St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He is the author of many books including The Monks at War: The Religious Orders, The Hundred Years War, The Wars of the Roses, Eleanor of Acquitaine and Henry V as Warlord.

SUSAN MOUNTGARRET was the co-author of Byzantium: A Journey and a Guide which brought her to Puglia to study its ‘rupestrian’ churches.