This month has been special for meeting new friends here in Italy.

Last week, Kate Bristow drove about 40 kms over the mountains from Le Marche, a region bordering Tuscany, to come and introduce herself. We spent a delightful couple of hours talking about books and other life matters.

Posing beneath Il Mulino

We have Urbino in common.  Kate divides her life between a town nearby and in America. My Italian mother-in-law hails from Urbino and I married her son in a tiny hamlet outside this beautiful city, in Castel Cavallino.

Walking around Urbino in 1977 after our wedding and forty + years later, outside the church where we married.

My latest book, The Girl who Escaped is located primarily in this beautiful, compact city. While Florence is well known as “the cradle of civilisation”, Urbino also had its golden age during the Renaissance and this walled city has the most stunning historic UNESCO world heritage centre.  And plenty of stories to be told…

At one stage, Kate confessed that when she heard I had published my new book, The Girl who Escaped, and located the story in Urbino, her heart sank. Her debut novel is to be published this autumn (see wonderful cover in the bookmark in above photograph). She uses a true story about the Nazis’ art thefts during World War Two and the courageous efforts of Pasquale Rotondi, Superintended of Arts in the region, to save many masterpieces.  She is adamant his story should be far better known; it is not only the Monuments Men who should be remembered for sterling, courageous work and she is determined to spread Rotondi’s story. 

I tried to allay her fears. Yes, my story is set in Urbino but every author has a different voice and a unique way of telling their story. I am sure her passion will shine through in her words and I cannot wait to read an early copy of Saving Madonna.  

There is room for everybody in the world of books. I can think of many stories told, for example, about Paris: Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”; “Suite Française” by Irène Némikovsky, Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast”, “Nôtre Dame de Paris” by Victor Hugo etc and they are all very different. All classics and widely read.

I had the same worry when nearing completion of The Tuscan Secret. I read a novel with a similar story and was anxious that readers and the author would think I had copied the idea. I wrote to the author: Deborah Lawrenson and she kindly responded with the same message that I shared with Kate.

I’m not sure if this edition is still in print but if you can get hold of a second hand copy, it is a great read.

I do love the writing community and I try to share as much as I can of my experience to date. It is give and take in this world.

My next blog will include a few tips I’ve picked up along the way in this writing business. In the meantime, on with the next, set in Sicily and hopefully, to be published by #Bookouture next spring.

Before I go, may I thank all of you who have recently bought The Girl who Escaped It’s on offer until THE END OF TODAY at 99 pence/99cents on Amazon kindle

You helped me gain a bestseller sticker. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  

Onwards!