Customer Reviews

A Tuscan Childhood

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Let's face it, would we be reading this book, or would it be published if the author grew up in Belgrade or Prague? Probably not. But Everything Tuscan is hot right now. Even the Seinfeld show has made fun of the latter, with their episode, and line: You can't go to Tuscany, it's booked up! I can't really recommend this book before you read all the other books on Tuscany by you know who (Frances Mayes), or Tim Parks, or even William Hoffman (his was on Umbria). In fact read Peter Mayles books on Provence first. He can write. Seek out Eric Newby's book on hiding out in Italy during WWII. It's a gem. Kinta's memoirs are too full of "And then we did that...". I will give her credit for finding a written "voice" of a child as she writes. It does not read like a book written by a woman in her 80's -- which she was when she wrote this. There is little attempt to develop people as real characters, although some truly real characters spent time with her family. Her beloved brother dies in WWII in but one sentence. You never really get a any sense at all about Kinta, who she was, etc. Read anything by Primo Levy, Carlo Levi or Natalia Ginzburg first. They can write about real life in Italy. I'm afraid Kinta's book is merely family oral history which may have sounded better as told to her children. She seemed to have lived an interesting life. That doesn't make it a great read.

Prior to her death, Kinta Beevor wrote only one book -- A TUSCAN CHILDHOOD -- which would have been better titled "My Life in Tuscany" as it really is the tale of her connection to Tuscany over period of 40 years that included her childhood. Beevor, whose maiden name was Waterfield, was the daughter Aubrey the artist and his wife Lina Gordon, both British ex-pats who lived and worked in Italy during the first half of the 20th Century. The family owned the fabulous 15th Century Fortezza della Brunella which the family called "the castle" and Lina inherited Poggio Gherardo which was almost as old. Both properties came with extensive farm lands. As a result the Waterfields lived lives of comfort -- socializing with the rich and famous (D.H.Lawrence for one) and feeding them to-die-for meals and sending their much neglected children back to England for schooling.

Though I became weary of name-dropping, I found Beevor's book an enjoyable read. Her mention of various rich and famous folks is as natural as can be--just tiresome in the same way a story told over and over by an older person can be. She says her son encouraged her to write down what she could remember, and I suspect he did so after he heard her stories several times. Fortunately, someone had the good sense to publish the book for a wider audience.

Ms. Beevor obviously loved Tuscany--her father's castle where the family restored and maintained a beautiful garden on the roof, her mother's house which Beevor's mother gained the use of on the death of her Aunt Janet, and the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Beevor's description of the sea as the train approached Aulla for her summer vacations from school in England is as well written as anything Lawrence ever wrote, and no doubt she was quite knowledgeable of his works given he was a family friend.

After WWII, faced with death duties on the Poggio Gherardo following the death of Beevor's brother John, and huge expenses owing to the damage inflicted on both properties during the war (the retreating Nazis and the encroaching Allies made a mess, the latter found an autographed photo of Mussolini in the castle and wrecked havoc) the family was forced to sell up and return to England.

Beevor's book contains passages that reminded me of bitter-sweet scenes in "The English Patient", the "Jewel in the Crown", "Tea With Mussolini", "Out of Africa", "Room With a View" and other works written by European ex-pats returned to their home of origin. Ms Beevor was undoubtedly well read and understood the withdrawal of the British Empire following WWII, and in her closing chapters she shares her thoughts about the effect of that withdrawal on Italy. Italy of course was not a colony, but the British had truly made themselves at home in Italy before the war (and may have done so once again).

GIST: A high-society British family resides in a castle in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century. Written by the late Kinta Beevor (whoever SHE was). HAMMOCK-TIME: You'll need several days' rest in your hammock, or beach chair to finish it. Some sections are sluggish. Yet the insightful characterization of people, countryside, and events is a potent incentive to finish the book. SKIMMING QUOTIENT: You might easily skip a section towards the end, an overemphasized recollection of the author's jaded coming-of-age society years. STYLE: Interesting blend of the stiff British upper-lip attitude and subtle, dry humor, with a more down-to-earth vulnerability gained, as if by osmosis, from the Italian staff members whom Ms. Beevor befriended. SUBSTANCE: Intriguing, at times, humorous exploration of a childhood in Italy, as part of an expatriate British family. My favorite passages center on a roof-garden, that became an idyllic retreat for the family and their guests. QUIBBLES: Is there anyone the author or her relatives didn't know, in high society during those early eras of the century? The name-dropping gets a bit much, but does not really affect the overall charm of the book. BROWNIE POINTS: I was happy to see that Ms. Beevor engages only rarely in patronizing behaviour towards Italians. She seems to enjoy learning from them, absorbing their knowledge of the land. It's a surprising feat, viewed against the aloofness that the rest of her family, and the rigid social class in which she is reared, displays. As an Italian-American, I find her attitudes refreshing. Sometimes I worry about Italy: all these rich foreignors settling, usually in Tuscany, where they are squeamish about the food, the art, the social structure, the Italianness (horrors!) of natives of Italy. Haven't we read enough books by that sort? COMPLEMENTARY BOOKS: There's a current barrel of books on Tuscany. Perhaps you might approach the region from a different angle. Try exploring one book entitled, Tuscany: The Beautiful Cookbook, which displays memorable photos and recipes. Logistically, it's a huge book, reminiscent of how delightfully big our books seemed to us as children, in managing the pages. The dishes outlined are intriguing - every one I tried turned out delicious so far, although it's a chore stuffing those closed-petal squash blossoms (yes, stuffing them). # # #

Kinta Beevor, author of only this book, comes from a family of writers, including her son, the reknown author, Antony Beevor. It must be a genetic feature that families produce wonderful writers.
She draws you into her world, like a welcoming friend. You will experience historic events and the world as it was in Tuscany in the 19th century and the early 20th century. You will get to know many of the distinguished and famous persons who visited the Waterfields and best of all, you will become acquainted with "Aunt Janet", the famous English writer, Janet Ross.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Tuscany and in warm and inviting family experiences and how they are influenced by world events.

"A Tuscan Childhood" has the flavour of an oral history and is a little like listening to your favorite grand aunt's stories of her days gone by - a little rambling, punctuated with references that aren't too relevant, but with the occasional flash of charm that livens the account.

The book is at its most interesting when she recounts Tuscan village life and food before WWII, and how the war affected the Italians of Aulla and Florence. But while one half of the title is "Tuscan", the other half is "Childhood", and Kinta Beevor also takes us through her memories of her family and their friends, and her growing up years, and unfortunately, her writing was never incisive or lively enough to interest me in the lives of people I never knew and would never know. Here, the book just reads like the indulgent memoirs of a diarist, penning a personal account of her history for her family.

Worthwhile reading only for its very personal account of a Tuscany that (as is made evident in the last chapter) has disappeared or is disappearing.

The only book Kinta Beevor ever wrote, it was perhaps the only book she could have written. Her obvious love for her magical childhood in Tuscany (esp the years before she was shipped off to England for school) shines forth from every paragraph as she recounts her life as one of the benignly-neglected children of a pair of English aristocrats who owned a 15th century castle, the Fortezza della Brunella, as well as a villa above Florence.
Centered around two very different periods of the author's life, the rural castle and the more urban villa, A Tuscan Childhood is full of famous people (her parents were part of the literati), beloved peasant farm workers, nursemaids, and Aunt Janet, upon whose death the villa falls into the hands of Ms. Beevor's mother.
Toward the end, in diatribes against Mussolini, the Allies, death taxes, and everything and everyone else, an old lady's peevishness with changing times mars what is otherwise a lovely and evocative piece of writing.

If you want a colorful and romantic yet realistic picture of Tuscany in the years between the two world wars, you will love this book. It captures the heart and soul of the Italian people in a way that only someone who grew up with them could do. I loved all the descriptions of the traditions surrounding the harvest times, the almost sacred preparation of food, the love of wine and the warmth of the Italians. It is the great fondness with which the author writes that makes this account so enjoyable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to escape to Italy.

I have read so many different books already in my life, and I don't think I will ever be able to choose one as my favorite but this novel is way up there. Kinta Beevor for this being her only book, did an excellent job writing it. I was never bored once, and just kept turning page after page for more as it was so enthralling and in one word, great. It was so interesting to read about early 20th century life in Italy from an upperclass English person. It starts in 1916 when WWI is ocurring, Kinta and her brother playing with the Italian soldiers that are at the castle to defend it, and look for the Austrians, and ends in the late 20th century, when Kinta has lead a full life, and seen so much from her Italian years. It's just plain wonderful

Eric Newby, an excellent travel writer wrote two books on the Tuscan region, one where he was a virtual prisoner of war during WWII in Tuscany, "Love and War in the Apennines", and a follow up book where he comes back to Tuscany in 1967 with his wife to renovate a farmhouse. While these are out of print in the USA they are availbale on the Amazon.co.uk site.

What amazed me about this book is that in spite of the author's English silver-spoon upbringing (sometimes it's hard to figure out which castle she's in at the moment) she gives the reader such an intimate portrait of the country, the scenery, the customs and the people of Tuscany. When you read of all the artistic and literary nobility that her parents had entertained, it's hard to fathom how she found the opportunities (and she did find them...) to relate so well to the local people. I have read many books written by authors who lived with and among the rural peasantry that don't give any better or more appealing feel for the country. I would hate to have missed this book!