Rose Macaulay was born at Rugby, where her father was an assistant master, much of her childhood was spent in Varazze, near Genoa. The family returned to England in 1894 and settled in Oxford. She read History at Somerville. Her writing career spanned fifty years from the publication of her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906. When her sixth novel, The Lee Shore (1912), won a literary prize, a gift from her uncle allowed her to rent a tiny flat in London, and she plunged happily into London literary life.
'Her compilation of history, literature and anecdote turns out to be a travel book in the best possible sense: it is a comic, intimate companion to visiting Portugal.' - Literary Review