photo courtesy tumbir
I found this book in a second-hand bookshop and what a lovely find it is.
Her biography reads that she was born in 1911 in East Kent.After her father joined the army in the first world war, her parents Lina and Aubrey Waterfield ( who was an
artist in his own right) left England and took Kinta and her brother to Florence. Kinta's childhood was spent in Poggio Gherado and at her parent's castle in Auill. Lina was avid journalist who also founded the British Institute in Florence. She describes
her mother's fierce attachment to her work throughout her lifetime, which gave her freedom, butleft her emotionally unattached to family life.
Kinta was five when they left for the castle, which had magnificent views of the Carrara Mountains. Her memoirs
are full of lovely idyllic reflections, of being free to run wild and free ; of Fiore, the stonemason, with whom she searched wild mushrooms, the porcini and plentiful truffle and Ramponi who showed them how to tickle trout. Local shepherds sold them
milk and cheese, Fiore's wife sold them eggs and baked goods. The freedom and beauty of their life in the castle attracted poets, writers and artists, including D.H. Lawrence and Rex Whistler.
She also writes about her formidable aunt, Janet Ross,who
lived on the property of Poggio Gherado. The ancient castellated villa, surrounded by three small farms, vineyards and olive groves overlooked Florence from the Fiesole hillside. Her Aunt Janet ruled over her domain and strict formality was expected.She returned
to England,married and had three sons. However she still returned to Italy every year. The book is not sentimental about her upbringing, it reads as a true memoir, and describes the ravages of country life during the second world war, especially to the Florentines
at that tme. The destruction of villas, the blowing up of the five bridges over the Arno (miraculously the Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge that survived, though was severely damaged) and the starvation that occurred as the enemy troops despoiled the land
and took the food out of peoples mouths.
I enjoyed the book because the author was able to convey the sense of loss of rural culture, and the rebuilding virtually of the whole country, but she is firm that Italians will always retain their identity
and ties to their families and their grand passions of good food, good wine and wine with resilience.
Kinta Beevor died in 1993.