I Came, I Saw

Book excerpt: DIVDIVPoignant tales from the renowned travel writer’s formative years In over six decades as a travel writer, Norman Lewis earned acclaim for his vivid chronicles of life around the globe. In I Came, I Saw,Lewis turns his pen on his own life in an affecting, comical, and always-thoughtful autobiography. He starts with his youth, when, at nine years old, he moved in with his eccentric aunts and his grandfather—a widower whose ambition was to turn him into a proper Welshman. Lewis recounts his grammar-school adventures, explores his relationship with his father, and recalls his introduction to his first wife, Ernestina, with whom he traveled extensively through Europe, Cuba, and America. He describes his time in the British Intelligence Corps during wartime—which allowed him further travels and honed his world perspective—as well as his experiences of fatherhood and life in Italy, which honed it further. I Came, I Saw is a masterwork of self-reflection by one of the most insightful writers of the twentieth century./div/div