Helena Attlee for The Fire in the Mountain

"Attlee has that rare gift of being able to know an inordinate amount about a subject and yet wear her knowledge so lightly that the tone is anecdotal, not academic. It's a big thing, to pull off such lightness" -Yotam Ottolenghi

For centuries, Mount Etna has sent lava to engulf the towns and villages, terraced fields, orchards, vineyards, and citrus groves that nestle across its slopes. But still it remains home to a quarter of Sicily's population. Why? Because Etna has always rewarded her people after every eruption with a landscape of unparalleled fertility, richness and drama.

In this extraordinary new book, Helena Attlee combines travel writing with history, mythology, geology, gastronomy and horticulture to tell a unique story of life in the shadow of Sicily’s most dangerous and alluring landmark. Venturing through lava-strewn fields and pistachio groves patrolled by armed guards; past dusky, basalt-built farmyards, and caves once used to store snow, Attlee gathers tales of the artists, writers, farmers, and scientists who have for centuries been drawn to this unpredictable landscape: from the early Roman, Arabic and Norman settlers, Romantic poets and Victorian geologists, to the local families who live and work there today.

It is at once a compelling account of Sicily’s rich and varied past, and a powerful meditation on humanity’s ever-changing relationship with landscape.

Helena Attlee is the author of the award-winning Sunday Times bestseller The Land Where Lemons Grow. She is a regular contributor to numerous magazines, including Gardens Illustrated, the English Garden, Country Life, Hortus and World of Interiors. She also writes for the bilingual website of an Italian landscape architect based in London. She has worked in Italy for much of her life, and it has been the inspiration for many of her books.