This annoyed him. For he disapproved of sickness in every shape or form. His own state of body was far from satisfactory at that moment; Africa—he was Bishop of Bampopo in the Equatorial Regions—had played the devil with his lower gastric department and made him almost an invalid; a circumstance of which he was nowise proud, seeing that ill-health led to inefficiency in all walks of life. There was nothing he despised more than inefficiency. Well or ill, he always insisted on getting through his tasks in a businesslike fashion. That was the way to live, he used to say. Get through with it. Be perfect of your kind, whatever that kind may be. Hence his sneaking fondness for the natives—they were such fine, healthy animals.
In exemplification whereof, let me tell a trivial Riviera tale. There was an Englishwoman here, one of those indestructible modern ladies who breakfast off an ether cocktail and half a dozen aspirins and feel all the better for it, and who, one day, found herself losing rather heavily at the tables. "Another aspirin is going to turn my luck," she thought, and therewith swallowed surreptitiously her last tabloid of the panacea. Not unobserved, however; for straightway two elegant gentlemen--they might have been Russian princes--pounced upon her and led her to that underground operating-room where a kindly physician is in perennial attendance. He brushed aside her explanations.
Norman Douglas is best known for his travel books. After being jailed in England for inappropriate behavior with young boys, Douglas decided an extended trip to the Mediterranean would be in order. The setting is an imaginary island off the Italian coast. The island is famed for lobsters and young woman. The south wind is blamed for any troubles the inhabitants encounter.
When a prominent surgeon is kidnapped, suspicion falls on the surgeon’s wife and her lover. But before the New York City police department can launch an investigation, special agent of the FBI, Kate Sutherland steps in, asserting federal jurisdiction, and removes the investigation to Federal Plaza. Kate soon learns that the ramifications of the kidnapping will be played out on an international stage. Kate meets Max Mann who introduces himself as a professor at the Kennedy School. This encounter leads to a passionate affair during which Kate begins to suspect Max’s other identity. Fault lines appear as turf disputes between the CIA and the FBI boil over with serious consequences for Kate. To further complicate matters, Israel’s Mossad deals itself into the game as a major player. The machinations of these contesting forces produce a startling outcome.
At the time when southern Italy was an isolated and underdeveloped region, Douglas wrote this 1915 travel guide to bring the beauty that he found in Calabria to the reading public. Inspired by the landscape, unique cultural traditions, and proximity to history, he found even traveling on long mule trails to be an enjoyable part of the journey rather than an inconvenience. Written in a chatty, conversational tone, Old Calabria will be of interest to armchair travelers and to anyone who enjoys stories of everyday adventure. British writer NORMAN DOUGLAS (1868-1952) wrote a number of books, including South Wind (1917).
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