27 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 24

There is a tendency nowadays to prefer a more informal

sort of guide-book to the rigid impersonality of a Baedeker. The visitor to Sicily will find just such a companion in Vistas in Sicily, by Arthur Stanley Riggs (Grant Richards, 3s. 6d. net), a volume of American origin. A considerable amount of practical and historical information is here conveyed to the reader through the medium of a colloquial narrative, while some excellent photographs and a useful bibliography add to the volume's merits.