Florence: A literary companion

Wonders of Man

by Francis King

Florence has for centuries attracted writers, bewitched by the beauty of its surroundings, the quality of its light, and the treasures it houses in its palaces, churches and museums. These literati have also attracted one another - Florence has long been the centre of a colourful expatriate community comprising writers as various as Walter Savage Landor, the eccentric Ouida, Dostoevsky, Norman Douglas and the Sitwells. The author lived there for a while, and here he paints a portrait of that world, rife with feuds and rivalries, impermanent but never dull. And he distils the comments of its literary denizens to guide us around the city itself, to point out where they lived and what they made of it, and to evoke its churches and cafes, villas and gardens.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel, Magic

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.

He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.

He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.