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I WAS, to say the least, effusive in my praise of E F Knight's Where Three Empires Meet, which I only bought after seeing it mentioned favourably in Peter Fleming's News From Tartary.

But having devoured it I was keen to read other works by him, including his first book, Albania: A Narrative Of Recent Travel.

It tells of barrister-turned-journalist Knight's travels through the mountainous Balkan country in 1878 - a journey that nearly led to him being killed as a spy.

Colourful cover - no illustrations inside, but plenty of vivid writing

While perhaps not quite matching the very high standards of his later work, Albania is nevertheless a great book.