A childhood spend in a Tuscan castle. Sleeping in hammocks in the roofgarden during
the Summer, tickling trout so you can catch them, buying fresh produce from the
local market and the festivities that are organized when the grapes are picked.
Kinta and
her brothers John and Gordon had a great childhood, just after WWI. Their parents
were writer and journalist Lina Duff-Gordon and Aubrey Waterfield the painter.
Aubrey bought the castle at the beginning of the 20th century and he
and his wife enjoyed the life in Tuscany. They were those typical eccentric and
upperclass English who entertained artistic friends such as D.H. Lawrence and
Robert Trevelyan who were writers and Rex Whistler who was a painter.
Lina and
Aubrey were caught up in their own endeavors and did not pay much attention to
their children. The only one who did look after them was Lina’s aunt, Janet
Ross who lived on an estate near Florence.
She was the unofficial leader of the Anglo-Florentines who came to live
in Florence since the late 19th century.
Janet Ross was a formidable
lady who wrote several books and was not afraid of strong opinions. She even
managed to put Virginia Woolf in her place when she came to tea once.
She lived
at Poggio Gherardo, that was mentioned by Boccaccio in his Decamerone. Janet
Ross and her husband bought the estate in 1888.
 |
| Janet Ross |
When aunt
Janet died in 1927, she left the use of the estate to Lina, and the Waterfields
moved to Florence. The castle was now only for vacations.
Kinta grew
up as a young woman in an Italy where the fascists got more and more powerful.
After her marriage she left for Engeland, but her parents stayed in Florence,
even though Lina was not popular with the new regime, due to her critical
newspaper articles. When WWII broke out, Lina and Aubrey managed to get to
England just in time, on the last train to France before war was announced.
After the
war Lina went back to Poggio Gherardo and lived there for several years, Aubrey
had died during the war. Kinta and her family would visit Italy every Summer.
 |
| The castle in Aulle |
Kinta Beevor brings back her childhood memories in A Tuscan childhood, about the things she did, the dishes that
were cooked, the customs of Tuscany and the relations between the English and
the Italians. She manages to do so without any sentimentality, but tells it
just how it was.
On the
other hand there is the nostalgia that you get when you realize that this is a
world that has vanished. Building the country again after the war changed
society and the estate and the castle would be sold eventually. The fate of the
castle is quite sad, the government purchased it and a commission said it had
to brought back into its original state, so the roof and the roofgarden were
completely demolished.
A Tuscan childhood is not just a recount of her childhood, it
also tells us about the Anglo-Florentine community and aspects of the history
of Tuscany and Florence. This makes that the book is not merely a recollection
of arbitrary memories, but it gives an image of a generation and that gives it
depth and significance
A very interesting book.
Published
in 1993, this paperback edition in 2015
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