A Dinner of Herbs

Reflecting on his experiences in the years after World War II, John Verney, author of Going to the Wars, came to recognize that what made them memorable was the unbought grace of life, revealed most strikingly in the Samaritan goodness of peasants who out of sheer kindness of heart risked everything to help him, and in the benevolence of his companions who, in spite of the extremes of boredom, hunger, discomfort and mutual irritation, were suddenly capable of tolerance and generosity that outweighed a world of pettiness. Twenty years after the war, Verney revisits the scenes of his imprisonment and escape and talks to the people who had preserved the noblest traditions of civilization—in spite the havoc of war and Nazi occupation. There he finds the answers to questions that turn out to be more mysterious than he had imagined.

A Dinner of Herbs interweaves an enchanting evocation of a little-known part of Southern Italy with a story of a wartime escape. The deceptive ease of the writing, like the clarity of the characterization, conceals a subtlety and a candor that make this book as penetrating as it is delightful.

John Verney (1913-1993) was born in London and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. A newlywed at the outbreak of war in 1939, he joined the North Somerset Yeomanry and subsequently served in the Royal Armoured Corps and the fledgling Special Air Service. He fought in Syria, Egypt, Sardinia, and Italy, where he escaped a POW camp.

Verney's books include Verney Abroad (1954), Going to the Wars (1955), Friday’s Tunnel (1959), Look at Houses (1959), February’s Road (1961), Every Advantage (1961), The Mad King of Chichiboo (1963), ismo (1964), A Dinner of Herbs (1961), Fine Day for a Picnic (1968), Seven Sunflowers Seeds (1968), and Samson’s Hoard (1973).