This is an autobiography written late in life by a British woman who spent formative years in the early 20th century with her family in Tuscany. My expectations were low, but this was an unexpected gem of a book.
The author's family was well off, but not particularly wealthy. Her father was a painter and her mother a writer - often working as a foreign correspondent. They bought a fortified castle in Tuscany and the author became immersed in life in the area.
What makes the book special is the light it shines on the history of the era - the Fascists in Italy, the impact of the first and second world wars, and also the light it shines on the life of the ordinary people - staff of the household, tenant farmers etc.
I found myself avidly reading, while avidly googling at the same time - researching the prominent people mentioned, checking out the zuppa recipes and so on. It was hard to put the book down.
Read Nov 2017 ( )

Kinta Beevor was five in 1916 when her family left England to live in Tuscany. The Tuscan property was in the countryside, the structure that would become their home built high on a hill. Although it was originally built as a fortress in the 16th century her parents called their home "the castle". Her father had fallen in love with it for it's "wild beauty and wonderful views" when he first saw it in 1896. The book covers the lives of the family both at the castle and away for four decades. Beevor's father was a painter, her mother a writer, and they were very much a part of the artistic community of that time. Many well known visitors, including Aldous Huxley and D. H. Lawrence, came to the castle. The most captivating people in the book are not the famous though, they are the Tuscan people who worked and lived near the castle. It's the description of their every day lives and their relationships with the family that cause the book to be as good as it is. ( )

Interesting family memoir. ( )

Kinta Beevor brengt het Toscane van haar jeugd op onnavolgbare wijze opnieuw tot leven. Haar beschrijvingen van het boerenleven met zijn eeuwenoude gewoontes, de kleurrijke dorpsmarken en de onovertroffen Toscaanse keuken kennnen hun gelijke niet.
Kinta was vijf toen haar ouders een vervallen kasteel in Toskane kochten. 1916. Haar ouders waren geziene figurenbinnen de artiestieke Anglo-Italiaanse gemeenschpa in Firenze. Zelfs voor hun allesbehalve burgerlijke kennissen wat het bepaald opzienbarend om een afgelegen kasteel alls woonverbijlf te kiezen. Dat Kinta's ouders hun kinderen grotendeels aan Toskaanse dorpelingen overlieten was al helemaal uitzonderlijk en eigenlijk not done.
Vooral de beschrijvingen van het landschap zijn onovertroffen. je hoort de cicaden tsjirpen, je ruikt de wilde tijm en voelt de dennenaalden onder je voeten.
Aan het einde van het boek wordt een analyse gemaakt over hoe het landelijke Toskane, levend volgens middeleeuwse wetten (mezzadria = de verdeling van de oogst tussen landeigenaar en boer) de twintigste eeuw intuimelt: dorpen raken ontvolkt, olijfgaarden overwoekerd, jongeren verkiezen flat, stad en alleenwonen boven het platteland met zijn sterk familiale banden en strukturen, de vloedgolf van het westerse toerisme., die komaf maakt met de verfijnde allures van de Engelse aristocratie die zomerverblijf hield of rentenierde,en ook perfekt zich kon voegen in het landeigenaar-contadini (boeren) systeem.
De eerste helft van het boek - de jeugdherinneringen - is het meest charmant.
vgl Enchanted April, Elisabeth von Arnim ( )

Beevor comes from literary roots. Her mother - Lina Waterfield - married a delitante water color painter and bought a castle in Lunigiana (northwest Tuscany) in the years preceding WWI. Waterfield's mother - Lady Duff Gordon - is well known for her book Letters From Alexandria. Waterfield herself was a journalist who also wrote a book - "Castle In Italy - which documents her life in the Lunigiana castle as well as her time living with her sister in her castle in Florence - Poggio Gherardo. Ross herself wrote a famous cookbook "Leaves From Our Tuscan Kitchen" and several histories of Tuscan towns. Beevor's son - Antony Beevor - is also a well known writer who has kept Ross' cookbook in print. But I digress. Beevor writes of her life growing up in the castle from which they had to leave during WWI. Later she lived with her Aunt Janet Ross at Poggio Gherardo. The book is very evocative of time and place and it is interesting to contrast her perspective with that of her mother's covering the same timeframe. The book is beautifully written and one wishes she had written more. ( )