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Rebecca West (1892-1983) was the adopted name of Cicily Isabel Fairfield. She was born in London in 1892 and educated in Edinburgh. Poet, critic and author, West published several novels to widespread acclaim, including The Return of the Soldier and The Judge. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1959. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, her magisterial history and travelogue of Yugoslavia, is widely considered her magnum opus.
The sheer quality and depth of the writing make it one of the great books of the century * * Times Literary Supplement * * Impossible to put down, both timeless and of its time - a travel book and epic narrative history brimming with passion, anger, scholarship and intuition, hatred and love * * Observer * * One of the supreme masterpieces of the twentieth century . . . As a book about Yugoslavia it's a kind of metaphysical Lonely Planet that never requires updating -- GEOFF DYER It is hard to convey the flavour of a book so rich in observation, history, philosophy, political ideas and ironic humour * * The Times * * It is a brilliant antidote to the disease that would have us believe that these are faraway countries about which we know nothing * * Guardian * * Such incandescent writing - you find yourself wanting to mark every sentence in order to go back and relish it again -- BRIAN ENO Rebecca West's magnum opus . . . one of the great books of our time * * New Yorker * * You will search in vain for a more original, assured and companionable guide to former Yugoslavia * * Financial Times * * Dame Rebecca, the finest reporter of her generation, saw everything . . . A remarkably easy read * * Sunday Telegraph * * Written with a fierce intelligence that any journalist must envy and admire * * Daily Telegraph * *
