author

Reginald Wyon

1872–1921

A globe-trotting British journalist, he turned first-hand reporting from the Balkans into vivid travel writing that brings a turbulent region and its people close at hand. His books mix adventure, observation, and on-the-ground detail from the years just before the First World War.

1 Audiobook

The Land of the Black Mountain: The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro

The Land of the Black Mountain: The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro

by Reginald Wyon, Gerald Prance

About the author

Born in 1872, Reginald Wyon was a British journalist and travel writer remembered for his close-up accounts of the Balkans and Montenegro. His surviving books include The Balkans from Within (1904) and, with Gerald Prance, The Land of the Black Mountain: The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro.

Wyon wrote from direct experience rather than from a distance, and that gives his work much of its energy. In the preface to The Balkans from Within, he noted that many of the sketches in the book had first appeared in magazines including Blackwood's, Chambers's, and Temple Bar, which helps place him as both a reporter and a literary travel writer.

He died in 1921. Although not widely known today, his writing remains valuable for readers interested in the history, politics, and everyday life of southeastern Europe as seen by an English observer of his time.