The Netherlands

In this book Mr. Sacheverell Sitwell, looking at the Netherlands through his own eyes rather than through those of his many predecessors, has produced a pic­ture of the country which may appear un­orthodox only because of its unfamiliarity. In his belief Holland, as a country, is as individual as Russia or as Spain, and there is a great deal more to be seen and enjoyed in it than the picture galleries, windmills, canals, flower markets and bare empty churches which seem to have impressed previous writers. It has been Mr. Sitwell's endeavour to get out of the museums and into the open-air—out of the museums and, likewise, away from the great cities (although not without having entered some of the old and forgotten patrician houses of The Hague and Amsterdam).

Auteur

The youngest sibling in the literary Sitwell family, Sacheverell 'Schie'was born in 1897 in Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Eton College and Oxford. In World War I he served from 1916 in the British Army, in the Grenadier Guards.

After the war he was heavily involved in the projects of his siblings, Osbert and Edith. Sacheverell's poetry came under severe attack by those who disliked the Sitwell family in general, and in response Sacheverell refused to publish any of his poems for many years. In 1967 Derek Parker published a selection of his poems in the summer edition of Poetry Review, including his elegy for his beloved sister Edith.

As an aesthetic adventurer and cultural pioneer, Sacheverell's his travel writing gives us remarkable insight into the many lands he visited.

Résumé
Sacheverell Sitwell goes beyond the generic images of Holland as all museums, windmills, canals, tulips and clogs. Sitwell leads us out of museums and away from the great cities, where tourist, and their guidebooks, usually remain cloistered. By traveling outside the usual, Sitwell has discovered a new and beautiful Holland in which 18th century architecture, strange villages and costumes of Friesland, and undiscovered artists. Sitwell's account of the Netherlands awakens anew our curiosity in this well trod country.