Linda's Blog

On the beautiful, wild Mediterranean island of Sardinia, 71 years after his death, D.H Lawrence’s presence was felt during the commemoration to mark the 100 years of Sardinia’s railway. The same train he took way back in 1921 retraced his steps. It also carried some of Lawrence’s fans, railway engineers and the mayors of the towns in which Lawrence visited.

In his famous book ‘Sea and Sardinia’ Lawrence describes his nine-day-trip to Sardinia. About two days of which were spent travelling by steam locomotive through the wildest parts of the island.

"I will not hear of it, no! After all the planning we’ve done, postpone it? Not a day before we’re supposed to leave!” Mrs Deledda whispered angrily to her husband as they waited outside Doctor Martin’s surgery. “It might be something serious….like cancer, you can’t ignore cancer! You can’t pretend it’s not there. I’ve never had such a fright in my life. We’ll postpone the holiday and go next summer. We’ve been waiting for years, one more won’t make much difference, will it!” retorted Gianni, her husband of thirty-five years. Giovanni Deledda, Gianni to friends, came to England at the age of  twenty to improve his English. His homeland, Sardinia - a beautiful  little island in the Mediterranean, offered very little at that time to  young people like himself. His father’s family had been shepherds for the last ten generations.