The Bandit on the Billiard Table - A Journey through Sardinia

First published in 1954 as South to Sardinia, this account of a summer journey in the early 1950s sees Alan Ross alternating the past and present of a strange island whose interior, especially, had been only rarely visited at that point. His descriptions of the landscape and local customs and mores (including billiards, 'one of the great Sardinian occupations') are interspersed with tales of a cast of characters who might have come out of Boccaccio, adding up to a memorable evocation. 'An alert and sensitive travel book... Alan Ross has an exceptional descriptive gift.' Listener 'So closely packed with good writing that it requires to be read slowly, as Mr Ross travelled.' Time and Tide 'He is a specialist in the vin triste... a delightful offbeat.' Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times 'An exceptionally good book by any standard.' TLS 'A work of art and imagination.' Times

Alan Ross (1922-2001) was a poet, writer, journalist, editor and publisher. In fact, he was a man of letters par excellence. Born in India, educated in England, he joined the Royal Navy in the Second World War and endured the Arctic convoys to Russia. Alan Ross took over The London Magazine (the definite article was later dropped) from John Lehmann and revitalized it. There, it has been said, 'he simplified as well as unified contemporary culture by the clarity of his unique editorial taste. He also discovered many new talents.'His writing embraced poetry, cricket journalism, biography, autobiography, criticism and travel writing. Many of his titles are to be reissued in Faber Finds.