A dark journey through time.It’s on a group trip to Rome that something terrifying and mysterious happens, whirling musical Clementina back in time to 17th century Italy. Amidst court intrigue and creaking carriages, Rome becomes a chiaroscuro backdrop to her growing feelings for young violin-maker Antonio Stradivari. But soon he discovers that Clementina is not all she appears. She must surely be a witch. How can she return to the 21st century again? Meanwhile, in an icy corner of the Arctic, a professor plots.
The Violinist's Apprentice by Isabella Mancini was published in November 2019.
I'm delighted to welcome the author to Random Things today as part of the Rachel's Random Resources Blog Tour.
She's talking about the books that are special to her in My Life In Books
Isabella Mancini - My Life in Books
I treasure the 1944 war edition of this novel, which
at the time was actually banned due to the ‘immorality’ contained within. From
the time, fifty years ago, when it was first handed to me by my father, I was
transfixed. It transported me, as a young gauche reader, to a 17th
Century world replete with dashing cavaliers and a heroine plucked from the
obscurity and prudity of the English countryside to a very bawdy, but
plague-ridden, London. I have never forgotten it.
At the age of 15 I had to study this novel for my
English ‘O’ Level. It taught me that first impressions of the opposite sex are
not always reliable. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets Fitzwilliam Darcy, she
thinks him arrogant and conceited, and when she discovers his involvement in
the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her own beloved
sister, Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. By the
conclusion, the author expertly shows the utter folly of judging others by
first impressions.
As an adult, this book propelled me
into a world of injustice to certain minority groups. Leon Uris magnificently
portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies. It’s the story of
an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious,
heartbreaking, triumphant era. As such it not only became one of the great
bestselling novels of all time, it also showed how global sympathies can ebb
and flow from generation to generation.
In my twenties I lost both my parents,
followed in later years with the loss of both my siblings. For years I
internalised my grief, causing untold medical symptoms until I read this book.
It brought untold comfort to me as it relates near-death experiences and covers
the wider aspects of spiritual growth and psychic healing. A must for everyone
suffering bereavement.
Similarly, this epic saga of Russia. War and Peace is a
vast story centred on Napoleon’s war with Russia. While it expresses the
author’s view that history is an inexorable process which man cannot influence,
he peoples it with a cast of over five hundred characters. Included are the
artless and delightful Natasha Rostov, the world-weary Prince Andrew Bolkonsky
and the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov. For the reader, a wonderful insight into a
different world.
My love for America was handed down to me by my father
and aunt, who each travelled to the US as part of the famous ‘huddled masses’
(described by Emma Lazarus’ poem on the plaque at the foot of the Statue of
Liberty) in the early years of the 20th
Century. For over 50 years, Alistair Cooke entertained millions of listeners
across the globe with his weekly BBC radio programme ‘Letter from America’.
This book comprises a selection of his finest broadcasts between 1946 – 2004. A
must for lovers of all things American.
As we grow older, inevitably our minds turn to the
meaning of life. This little book describes Frankl’s conviction that the
primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful.
This is remarkable given that the author experienced the worst possible start
in life in a Nazi death camp. It inspires all readers to find significance in
the very act of living.
In these days of political turmoil, it’s good to read how
the man many call our greatest-ever leader dealt with the most profound problem
ever faced by the United Kingdom: make
peace with Hitler but by so doing revoke our own sovereignty in order to save
British lives, or to fight them ‘on the beaches’. We all know what decision Churchill made. |It
makes wonderful reading.
I include these, as written in my other guise, merely to
show how reading about the past has coloured and influenced my own writing.
These three novels were all influenced by the above historical works. It’s only
by researching, learning and writing about the past that man can hope to
understand what went wrong back then. Lest we forget.
I conclude my life’s story in books with this true
account, as a rite of passage. In 2005, two self-deprecating pensioners moved
to France in a quest for a better life. However, France was a completely
different culture and many hysterical adventures are recorded as we ventured
into the unknown. However, after 12 years of struggle, as Sinatra melodically
intoned ‘It’s so nice to go travelling…but so much nicer to come home’. Never forget the comforts of your own back
yard.
Isabella Mancini is the nom de plume of
prolific author Olga Swan, published by Crooked Cat Books. She has a BA Hons (Open) in English Language
and Literature and a lifelong love for writing and language. For 12 years she
lived in SW France, but returned to the UK in 2017, where she now lives in the
West Midlands with her husband and elderly French rescue dog Bruno.
Previous
books by Olga Swan:
An Englishwoman in America
From Paradis to Perdition
Pensioners in Paradis
The Mazurek Express
Lamplight
Vichyssoise
3rd Degree Murder
Social
Media Links –
Twitter: @IsabellaManci10.
Facebook
Group: Books, Music and the Past
Amazon
page for Isabella Mancini: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isabella-Mancini/e/B08127KJJW/
Amazon
page for Olga Swan:
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