A magical combination of travel, quest, encounters, landscape, and music woven together meant that I could hardly put this book down!
I journeyed with Sophy Roberts as she traversed Siberia in its breathtaking present while also recalling its complex and often difficult past. The harshness of exile tied up with its convict history was alleviated a little by the beauty and hope imbued in music.
Roberts provides plentiful insights into the history of pianos in Russia and, therefore, Siberia, while also meeting numerous fascinating people along the way as she determinedly pursues her quest.
From acclaimed journalist Sophy Roberts, a journey through one of the harshest landscapes on earth―where music reveals the deep humanity and the rich history of Siberia
Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell.
Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos―grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through…
Edmund de Waal inhabits intricate rooms and poignant memories within a Parisian mansion bequeathed to the state by the late Moise de Camondo as he writes a series of imaginary letters to the deceased art collector and banker.
Inspired by his surroundings after installing an exhibition at the Musée Nissim de Camondo, de Waal’s letters are often short, sometimes humorous, and always deeply personal. Within these lines he reveals the history of this Jewish family originally from Constantinople but who relocated to Paris.
I enjoyed the accessibility and imaginative retelling of this complex and sometimes difficult family history through de Waal’s letters. In revealing aspects of his and their lives, this collection of fifty brief imagined and imaginative letters also tells us something about wider society.
From the author of the bestselling phenomenon The Hare with Amber Eyes
As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well.
The Camondos lived just a few doors away from Edmund de Waal's forebears. Like de Waal's family, they were part of belle epoque high society. They were also targets of anti-Semitism.
Count Moise de Camondo created a spectacular house filled with art for his son to inherit. Over a century later, de Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and, in a haunting series of letters…
I waited so impatiently for Blood and Dirt to be published!
It’s a compelling history that reveals how prisoners were forced to labour over many years to build colonial New Zealand ‘one cartload of stone at a time’. Evocatively illustrated, this book profoundly alters readers’ perceptions of the picturesque New Zealand landscape by vividly recasting it through imprisoned eyes.
Whether journeying through a built urban landscape or the nation’s large forest plantations, Davidson reveals how prison labour was instrumental in shaping the built and natural environments of the modern nation.
He explores schemes that were put into practice as well as grand plans that were never realised, consistently demonstrating the underlying human cost of ‘progress’. New Zealand will never look the same to me again!
It’s no secret that Van Diemen’s Land was a British penal colony. Yet surprisingly at least 110 New Zealand prisoners were transported there in the nineteenth century. This fascinating book provides insights into the lives of people like William Phelps Pickering, an entrepreneur turned criminal; Margaret Reardon, a potential accomplice to murder and convicted perjurer; and Te Kumete, a Māori warrior transported as a rebel. Their stories, and others like them, reveal how New Zealand’s governing class was intent on cleansing the colony of what it considered a burgeoning criminal underclass. Van Diemen’s Land became a dumping ground for New Zealand’s unwanted. Each convict’s experiences reveal something about how the British Empire sought to discipline, punish and reform those who trespassed against it.
