I had the good fortune to be born into a family with lots of
foreign relatives, both blood and adopted. My adopted Italian
grandmother, Nonna, is at the date of writing, still alive aged
105. This meant hearing French, Italian, Spanish, German, Hungarian
and others, and English was often spoken with quaint, amusing
accents. Some of the languages rubbed off. After starting out at
University studying Italian and German, I switched to law. As a
barrister, unusually, I travelled across Europe and into Russia and
soon became more fascinated than ever by European history. I often
think of what a wonderful accident it is to be born in the UK and
how things might have turned out differently if history’s victors
had been losers. What if Napoleon had won Waterloo? I was
particularly drawn to the American and French Revolutions and the
Napoleonic wars, how the world changed so dramatically over a
hundred year period between the mid 18th and mid 19th centuries.
After the birth of my daughter, I worked as a reader for Random
House for three years and then, covering for a teacher’s absence,
taught history A level at a local school. Besides history and being
an avid follower of the news, I love tennis, swimming, walking, the
piano and guitar, sun, sea, sand, London, the United Kingdom, most
things Italian – particularly old Fiats, Max Mara and Furla
handbags and eating with loved one. I think Napoleon should
have been shot for many reasons, but not least for having said that
women ought never to want to eat – so I take every opportunity to
defy him…
Of course there are some books which pop up everywhere. I
remember when The Da Vinci Code came out, virtually everyone one
was reading it. Whether on a London bus, in a café, in an airport
lounge, on an aircraft, by the pool, on the beach it was there. I
never managed to be on a yacht that summer, but I have a pretty
good idea that Dan Brown had probably saturated the yachting
fraternity too! But what fascinates me is that wherever you go in
the world, there are incredible writers who rarely get an airing in
the UK. I like to try and keep up with the latest writers in
Britain, but I also try as hard as I can to keep up with writing
beyond our borders. I am a great admirer of the French author
Michel Houellebecq, the Italian Italo Calvino and German Bernard
Schlink.
This summer, I decided to focus on Italian authors. Particular
favourites are Alessandro Manzoni’s novel, The Betrothed, a
wonderfully witty but serious allegorical tale of the times in
which Marie-Louise lived, and The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di
Lampedusa, set in Sicily towards the end of Marie-Louise’s reign in
Parma. I recommend anything by Elena Ferrante, Arturo’s Island and
History by Elsa Morante, a little known author in the UK but much
loved by another great writer and thinker, Doris Lessing. Both
women paint life as it is lived, the travails of ordinary people of
modest aspirations who struggle daily. I loved the charming
mystical Indian Nocturne and Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
(translator of the great Portuguese Nobel prize-winner Fernando
Pessoa). Another book I recommend is Fortunata y Jacinta, a family
saga set in the mid 19th century in Spain, by Benito Pérez Galdós,
a powerful commentator on political and social change. And I
haven’t even begun to get started on New World authors! So many
fabulous books and so little time to read…
a corner handle to resize me.
Eighteen-year-old Habsburg Archduchess Marie-Louise leaves Vienna in 1810 to marry Napoleon, Emperor of France, previously her father’s arch-enemy. Like her great-aunt Marie-Antoinette forty years earlier, Marie-Louise believes her marriage will secure peace between Austria and France. But the Austrian foreign minister, Klemens Metternich, intends to use her marriage to bring down Napoleon for good.
Unexpectedly, Marie-Louise finds Napoleon, an adorable, loving, romantic husband and duly produces a dynastic heir. Their time together is cut short by Napoleon’s Russian Campaign which sets in train wars which lead to her father marching on Paris. When Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo and despatched to St Helena, Marie-Louise is finally granted the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, located east of Genoa, south of Milan and north of Tuscany. Marie-Louise proves her devotion to her subjects to such a degree that they keep silent as regards her secrets. But Europe is scandalised when all is revealed on the premature death of her lover. Marie-Louise fights to retain her Parman throne against the French and Spanish Bourbons who covet it, and against the forces of Italian patriotism which Napoleon inspired.
Marie-Louise has many enemies: she is hated by most of the
reactionary sovereigns in Europe for being Napoleon’s wife and for
creating the most enlightened state in the Italian peninsula. She
hangs on to her duchies by the skin of her teeth. Within a
fortnight of Marie-Louise’s death, revolution spreads across the
Italian Peninsula, engulfing her duchies.
When I first visited Parma in 1999, much of its historic centre was concealed behind high barricades of khaki plastic sheeting. When occupied by the Germans, the city had suffered high altitude bombing by the allies in 1944 aimed at the train station and marshalling yards. Large parts of the forbidding 16th century complex known as the Palazzo della Pilotta were destroyed, as were Marie-Louise’s residences in the city. Many more of the city’s monuments and churches were damaged.
It was only in the 1990s with the advent of wealth from Parma’s most successful conglomerates - dairy food giant Parmalat, glass manufacturers Bormioli and pasta-makers Barilla - and before the economic downturn ensuing from financial scandals, that the centre was enjoying a makeover. The dust covers and barricades have since been removed to reveal Parma’s extraordinary beauty. Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque palaces, cloisters and arcades blend together with Mussolinian wide marble pavements and tasteful 1950s office buildings. Despite the rape, desecration and bombardment of history’s conquerors, Parma still remains an urban paradise. Virtually everyone goes about their business in the city on a bicycle or a vespa. Gardens, painting, sculpture, marquetry, carvings and inlays are all exquisite. The pace is relaxed but efficient.
There are excellent restaurants, Parma boasting that it is the gastronomic heart of Italy (seriously challenged by several other Italian cities). Anolini in brodo (meat filled pasta parcels in broth) and tortelli d’erbetta (beet spinach and ricotta in fine strips of pasta) are local specialities and particularly delicious. The torta fritta (fried bread) and local salamis, from Zibello, Felino or San Secondo are also very satisfying. Local wines are delicious too.
Parma has become internationally renowned for its theatres,
opera-house, jazz festival and major trade events, such as its
biannual antiquarian fair, the largest in Europe. Shops, galleries,
museums, banks, educational and welfare institutions are named
after the famous of Parma. The household names of composer Giuseppe
Verdi (after whom Parma’s airport is called), conductor Arturo
Toscannini and Mannerist artists, Antonio di Correggio and his
pupil Francescesco Mazzola, known as “il Parmigianino”, appear
frequently. But one name dominates: Marie-Louise. Most homes have
her portrait, the portrait of the Good Duchess, displayed in their
homes, either alone or next to that of the Pope.
Other projects
I’m working on
Saving the Elgin Marbles
Staying within my favourite historical period and my desire to rehabilitate those who have undeservedly fallen into oblivion, I am currently working on a reconstructed life of Giovanni Battista Lusieri, the travelling painter (what we would call today one’s personal photographer) who accompanied Lord Elgin to Constantinople (today Istanbul) following Lord Elgin’s appointment as English Ambassador to the Porte (the Ottoman Empire) in 1799.
In the
summer of 2015, the world watched in horror as the ancient ruins of
Palmyra were razed to the ground. It is therefore, perhaps, a
moment to reflect on those who forestalled the destruction of
antiquities.
It was
Lusieri who saw how badly the Parthenon was deteriorating, and
Lusieri who begged Lord Elgin to remove the temple’s ornamentation
and statuary in order to save them from further deterioration and
destruction. Lusieri’s story is dramatic. Look out for my
watercolourist!
23rd Sept 2015
Return to Ithaca
I am in
the process of finalizing a novella which tells two stories in
parallel, one set in BCE 1020 which is a retelling of the
concluding episode of Homer’s Odyssey, namely the reunion of
Odysseus and Penelope after over twenty-five years of separation,
and the other set in CE 2010 which tells the tale of a modern
Odysseus and Penny reunited after twenty-five years through the
internet. I hope my readers will like the device I have chosen and
find the story entertaining.
28th Sept 2015