In praise of Norman Lewis

 I doubt there will be a finer book of non-fiction than this in 2025.’  Stephen Smith, The Observer, Book of the Day

 

‘Norman Lewis is more relevant than eve ... He is the travel writer’s travel writer, conjuring prose with more humanity than Bruce Chatwin, more insight than Jan Morris and more humour than Patrick Leigh Fermor. And as this new collection brilliantly reveals, he is a better writer than all three.’  Sara Wheeler, Financial Times

It’s not often a book gets this kind of praise. But ever since we bought Eland from John Hatt 25 years ago, he has been determined to bring together a collection of Norman Lewis’s finest writing. It was the fact that Norman Lewis was languishing out of print that led John to start Eland. So here’s to the founding spirits.  For more on ‘A Quiet Evening’ featured in our latest newsletter go to our home page.

John Hatt on Norman Lewis

A Quiet Evening: The Travels of Norman Lewis, introduced by John Hatt

After founding Eland in 1982 with the purpose of reviving exceptional travel literature, my earliest ambition was to bring Norman Lewis to a wider readership. Therefore Eland’s first publication was A Dragon Apparent, his wonderful account of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia before those nations were engulfed in the Vietnam war.  I went on to republish what I considered to be Norman’s four best books. After passing the Eland baton to Rose Baring and Barnaby Rogerson, I stayed in close touch; but, because they managed the company with such love and skill, I took a back seat. All the same, I recently beseeched them to allow me to assemble a new anthology of Norman’s best articles. They generously agreed, and this is the result.

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Voices of the Old Sea, Norman Lewis reviewed by William Palmer

It is easy to sympathize with Lewis’s respect for the tough, independent, bloody-minded fishermen and the eccentricities of the impoverished landowner and priest. He became a fisherman himself in partnership with his friend Sebastian, and the lovingly detailed descriptions of diving and fishing in crystal waters are superb. The two men maintained a safe distance from the professionals, diving only for those fish that the Farol men ignored.

But any illusion that the people in these isolated villages lived an idyllic life, playing guitars and feasting on Elizabeth David dishes, is dispelled by this book. The guitar was despised, the meals were mostly stews of poor meat, and the wine was thin and acidic. Between October and March, hunkering down for the long winter, the fisher­men had to live on the proceeds from their summer catch. Lewis may have made great efforts to fit in and he certainly helped many of the hopelessly innumerate locals order their affairs and avoid being cheated by the French dealers who came down to buy their fish, but he doesn’t seem to have hung around much when summer ended.

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