I was intrigued by my communications with Margaret Allen, the former London Times journalist who visited Norwich last week. After all, it’s not every day a small town reporter gets to interview someone with her background.

I was so intrigued in fact, that I made the trip to Norwich on Saturday night to attend the dinner given in her honor at St. Bartholomew’s Msgr. Guy Festa Parish Center. I was every bit as impressed with the woman herself as I was with her credentials.

It wasn’t just Margaret I found fascinating, but also her quest to trace the migration of people from the Aeolian Islands around the world. Having seen some of Frank Speziale’s photos of those picturesque islands, where he himself was born, I can understand why Margaret is so enamored with the place.

She spoke at length about the history of the Aeolian Islands. As something of a history buff, I found this incredibly interesting. In AD 59, they served as the headquarters for Hannibal. Barbarossa also made use of the islands. Later, Russian Jews displaced from their homeland emigrated there, where they converted to Catholicism. During World War II, the islands were used as a political prison.