The Fire in the Mountain, Sicily, Etna and her People by Helena Attlee

For centuries Mount Etna has sent lava to engulf towns and villages, terraced fields, citrus groves, orchards and vineyards, and yet despite all, a quarter of Sicily’s inhabitants still choose to make their home on her slopes. Why?
In this richly illustrated lecture Helena will reveal the extraordinary biodiversity and unique plant varieties nurtured by Europe’s biggest and most active volcano, and consider the influence of volcanic soils on life in her shadow.
‘A scholar of all things Italian, and especially Sicilian, with an eye for the quirky and the poetic, Attlee does for Etna what she did for lemons: she delves deep into the history of the volcano and the relationship of its people to their unpredictable land’ – Caroline Moorehead, The Spectator.

Helena is a best-selling non-fiction author. Her latest book, The Fire in The Mountain, Sicily, Etna and Her People was published in April 2026, and was recently broadcast as BBC Radio 4’s ‘Book of the Week’. The Land Where Lemons Grow, The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit was a Sunday Times best-seller. It was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman travel-writing prize, won the Guild of Food Writers’ Book of the Year, and was also broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It has already been published in several languages, and will be translated into Italian later this year, for publication by Touring Club Italiano. Helena teaches creative writing in Britain and abroad. She also runs academic writing workshops for PhD students at universities all over Britain.