Diane Phelps's Sicilian house and garden have been featured in The World of Interiors and numerous other publications. A House in Sicily is her first book.
Denis Mack Smith is the author of Modern Italy: A Political History and Mussolini: A Biography.
In this charming memoir, Phelps recounts how she indirectly inherited a villa in Taormina shortly after the end of WWII. Her uncle, who had originally purchased the land and built the house, left no will, so the villa went to the author's aunt. Realizing that her aunt had no interest in the property, Phelps, who is British, headed to Sicily with the intent to sell but ended up as enchanted with the area and the property as her uncle had been. She turned the house into an inn in order to make enough money to maintain it, and later she received many famous guests, Roald Dahl among them. Phelps is clearly well integrated into Taormina after 50 years, and she lovingly and teasingly depicts her companions. Concetta, who has worked for the author for three decades, is a no-nonsense woman who initially insisted she couldn't serve as cook because she knew how to prepare only Sicilian food. Phelps, who was a social worker before moving to Italy, has a keen anthropological eye. Her portrait of a local Mafia don, who has no phone but instructs her simply to phone his village's main operator if she needs to reach him, manages to be both humorous and serious. Another chapter on the local police forcesÄcarabinieri, the sanitary police, the financial police, etc.Äcaptures Italy's bureaucracy beautifully. Since chapters are organized by topic, occasionally the date of certain events is unclear, but otherwise, this is a refreshing look at a place that so many have stereotyped and so few have known as well as Phelps. Illustrations. not seen by PW. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
In 1947, when 34-year-old Englishwoman Phelps inherited her uncle's beautiful stone house in Taormina, Sicily, her first intention was to sell it. She, an Englishwoman in 1947, had neither the inclination nor the means to move to Sicily and take care of Casa CuseniÄbut that was before she made her first visit and fell in love with the house and the Italian way of life. In this memoir, Phelps, a psychiatric social worker, tells how she managed to keep her uncle's house by opening it to foreign visitorsÄwriters, painters, and those as enchanted as she was by the view of the snow-covered Mount EtnaÄdespite having little money and difficulties with the Italian officials. Like Frances Mayes in Under the Tuscan Sun (LJ 9/1/96), Phelps describes not only the beauty of the area but the local people who were always willing to help her, from Don Ciccio, the town's Mafia don, to loyal cook Concetta. Unlike Mayes, though, Phelps has had such notables as Bertrand Russell, Tennessee Williams, Roald Dahl, and Henry Faulkner stay with her, and she includes engaging stories about each. Particularly amusing is the account of Faulkner's visit, accompanied by six cats, three dogs, a duck, and a baby goat. A delightful, humorous book; strongly recommended for all public libraries.ÄNancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
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