Publication day for The Girl Who Fled the Picture is in less than two weeks on 21st August. How exciting is that! I’ve had some lovely pre-publication reviews from authors and bloggers and I am so excited to think of my work soon being read by strangers.
I’m a huge fan of historical fiction. I particularly enjoy books that take me back in time and overseas. This year I seem to be reading my way through Italy. I loved Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan. Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portraithad me awestruck (as usual, I’ve been a huge fan for many years). Now I’m half way through D.V. Bishop’s Darkest Sin – which is really first class. Somewhat weirdly, like The Marriage Portrait, it’s also set in sixteenth century Florence, only thirty years later. I don’t read huge amounts of crime, but I love David Bishop’s writing. Sarah Winman’s Still Life is coming to the top of my bedside t.b.r pile. I find Sarah’s work beautiful and often heart-breaking. Should I risk taking it on an Italian train journey in October? My copy is a heavy hardback, so that’s maybe daft. Also, do I want to be sobbing in front of Italian train passengers? Perhaps I’ll read it here and take a cheerier paperback. What do you suggest?
My first blog began with Isabella in Constantinople. The next stage of her adventure will take her to Rome and the start of her involvement with the Jacobites. I knew nothing about their life in Rome before I began my research and spent literally years reading everything I could find about the Stuart family during these years. When I was looking for a safe place for Isabella to hide, I went to visit this little Santa Cecilia church, which is on Trastevere island in Rome. It’s a bit of a hidden gem. Our Italian tour guide had never been before I requested it and he was very enthusiastic. It is connected to the Jacobite family through Maria Clementina, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Polish mother. I won’t tell you all of her fascinating life story, I’ve got the bones of a novel written about it. Perhaps I’ll bring that to you next year? Mary Clementina was a devout Catholic but James Stuart was keen to present himself as a suitable monarch to rule Protestants too, so he had many Protestant Scottish nobles in his court. Maria Clementina was furious when she lost easy access to her sons, when they were given over to these nobles to educate. Prince Henry was only a baby. In protest, she shut herself in this convent for three years
Do go and visit the church if you are in Rome. You can see in the photo how beautiful it is. The very lifelike white marble statue of Saint Cecilia below the altar has a ribbon strategically placed to cover where they chopped her head off! You can book additional tours of part of the convent (I caught a tantalising glimpse of their citrus orchard). Also of a fascinating and well-preserved Roman dwelling in the crypt. Whether it was Cecilia’s actual house, we will never know.