Overview

Henry Fielding sailed to Portugal with his household in search of a cure for dropsy, jaundice and asthma. The rather more alluring promise of orange-scented and wine-soaked afternoons was what drew fellow novelist William Beckford to its shores. Byron, meanwhile, was sent into a black rage when the locals failed to greet his arrival with the level of fanfare he expected. Novelist Rose Macaulay first travelled to Lisbon in March 1943 to escape the misery of London and loss of her bombed flat. Turning to letters, diaries and travelogues, she brought together the reactions of some of the many British travellers in whose footsteps she now trod. They Went to Portugal rambles down the centuries, bringing us the voices and experiences of a fascinating cast of characters: from pirate crusaders to ambassadors, from clergymen of all denominations to the port-wine trading pioneers, from aesthetes to the Romantics.

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9781914198397

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'Her compilation of history, literature and anecdote turns out to be a travel book in the best possible sense: it is a comic, intimate companion to visiting Portugal.' - Literary Review

Author Information

Rose Macaulay was born at Rugby, where her father was an assistant master, much of her childhood was spent in Varazze, near Genoa. The family returned to England in 1894 and settled in Oxford. She read History at Somerville. Her writing career spanned fifty years from the publication of her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906. When her sixth novel, The Lee Shore (1912), won a literary prize, a gift from her uncle allowed her to rent a tiny flat in London, and she plunged happily into London literary life.

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