Rebecca West got a great big boost when the wars in the rapidly turning former Yugoslavia began in the 90's, as her Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was just about the only book in English that provided any history of the region.

I'd read it, she preens, back in my undergrad combined history and lit major, having taken two semesters of Balkan history taught by one of the founders of the by then long defunct League of Nations.

Love, C.