The happy summer days - Richard N Frye

Fulco Santostefano della Cerda, Duke of Verdura, Marquess of Murata La Cerda, was born in the 1890's at the villa Niscemi on the outskirts of Palermo. The Happy Summer Days describes his childhood in that beautiful place at the beginning of this century and paints enchanting vignettes of a bygone era, an era of luxurious places, gardens and parks, where the sun always seems to shine. Through the eyes of young Fulco we see the many fascinating characters that peopled this world : the aloof grandmother, tender mother and adored sister, Maria Felice, with whom he grew up in the villa, waited on by a host of amusing servants and licked intoshape by a series of governesses; his handsome, dashing father who lived a separate existence in the Palazzo Verdura in town and the Villa Serradifalco at Bageria; his innumerable eccentric relations and neighbours; and many animals which he and his sister loved so much. The book is full of good stories and the enchantments of happy childhood, which dissolved for ever with the coming of war.