The Italian Fake Date
Escape to Calabria with this ‘terrific tale of mystery and romance, set in Italian sunshine’!
Fancy Christmas in Sicily?
My first ever collection of short stories for Christmas and the festive period is out! And, of course, it’s set in Sicily.
Stars Are Silver
My new collection of short stories is out as kindle, paperback and easy-on-the-eye very large print. Is it too late for Melina to learn to drive? Is Don Pericle’s vow never to fall in love again still valid after fifty years? Will a falling piano squash Filomena or just shake up her heart? Why does…
Making Pizza
How do you make pizza dough from scratch? Does the ham go on the pizza before or after cooking? How about the mushrooms? Making the dough The other day, my friend Rosalind asked me to give her my pizza recipe, and I was at a loss. I usually let my bread machine make the dough…
Sicilian Love: the leopard and his mum
Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa, loves his mum. When she says ‘come’, he comes, when she says ‘go’, he goes. Unfortunately, in 1931, Giuseppe falls in love with another woman. Now when his mum wants him to stay in Palermo and he wants to meet his secret crush in Rome, he asks a friend to…
Sicilian Love: 24 shirts, 24 bedsheets
Rosa Balistreri’s life hangs on 24 shirts, 24 bedsheets and 24 underpants: the wedding trousseau that she hasn’t got. Aunt Mariannina demands it, if Rosa is to marry her son, cousin Angilino. Sixteen-year-old Rosa loves him and he loves her too. His love is so sincere that, when she offers herself to him one night,…
How to Look After Your Mamil (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra)
All over the world, men are more likely to take their own lives than women , and in the UK they are three times as likely. Men are especially delicate during their mid-life years ( the highest suicide rate in the UK is for men aged 45-49 ). And it’s during their mid-life wobble that…
Sicilian Love: the madness of the writer’s wife
If your dad wants you to marry his business partner’s child, you do it. That’s how it works in Sicily in 1894. Luckily, Maria Antonietta Portulano and Luigi Pirandello like each other. Good for them. Alright, there is an intellectual ocean between the Sicilian novelist and playwright and his wife, but they are definitely on…
Sicilian Love: the countess goes to court
When Countess Giulia Trigona went to court, she meant to break up only with her husband, not with her lover too. Breaking up with her lover was actually a damn good idea. Pity it came a bit too late. The extramarital affair of Countess Trigona and Baron Paternò had been an all-consuming whirlwind, witnessed by…
The Sicilian Mama 