Katherine Mezzacappa

Very good news from @fairlightbooks.bsky.social #TheMaidenofFlorence is number 1 #bestseller currently on Amazon US kindle for Italian #historicalfiction. And there's an ebook discount for US readers until Thursday. I'm up there with John Banville and Kate Quinn! #writingcommunity

I'm touched that you quoted me on the cover of Annie's Day. 😻

My #bookreview of Bill Hodson's Worktown for @histnovsoc.bsky.social historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/work... #historicalfiction #1930s #bolton the lives the volunteers assiduously recorded on paper... are recounted with an empathy both uncompromising and devoid of sentimentality.

My #bookreview Richard Dennis's Rumbling of the Waters @histnovsoc.bsky.social #historicalfiction #1920s 'an absorbing historical and psychological thriller... warning of what happens in a democracy when the rule of law is subverted and instrumentalised.' historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-...

My #bookreview of Martin Campbell's The Insanity Inspectors for @histnovsoc.bsky.social 'Individual case notes are heartrending, taking the reader into a world remote in time and geography' #historicalfiction #scottishhistory #insanity historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-... #victorian

My #bookreview of Rosemary Griggs 'The Mistress of Dartington Hall' for @histnovsoc.bsky.social 'Griggs’s achievement lies in her ability to evoke vividly an intimate portrait of life in a 16th-century West Country manor house' historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/mist... #historicalfiction #devon

My #bookreview Pnina Shinebourne's Love in the Time of the Medici for @histnovsoc.bsky.social: a tragic story, in which Livia is punished for her attempt to exercise free emotional will in defiance of patriarchal convention #historicalfiction #renaissance historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/love...

It's a splendid book, Livi!

It's a marvellous book!

My #bookreview of @livimichael.bsky.social's Elizabeth and Ruth @saltpublishing.com for @histnovsoc.bsky.social historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/eliz... #historicalfiction #victorian #manchester 'the best-intentioned philanthropists...saw frailty and weakness where they ought to have seen heroism'

My #bookreview of Mike Hollow's The Bloomsbury Murder for @histnovsoc.bsky.social historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-... #cosycrime #noir #historicalfiction 'This is cosy crime at its best, confidently written and painstakingly researched'

Thank you, Susan (and haven't forgotten that read...)

Something to do over Christmas, people. #Flashfiction #competition with the Florentine Literary Society; 150 words inspired by Florence (not hard, surely?) and your work could feature in @theflorentine.bsky.social www.theflorentine.net/2025/10/31/f...

No, I've not been sulking about being pipped to the post by none other than Kevin Barry for @historia-hwa.bsky.social Gold Crown award; I've just been madly busy. I'd a great time at the awards evening and was so pleased to have made it to such a stellar #shortlist #historicalfiction #irishwriting

My #bookreview of @annaluciaauthor.bsky.social's Broken Madonna #historicalfiction #italia for @histnovsoc.bsky.social historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/brok... 'a lyrical, elegiac and empathetic portrait of a small-town community and a vanished way of life'

My #bookreview of John Banville's Venetian Vespers @faberbooks.bsky.social for @histnovsoc.bsky.social 'This tour de force of a novel has all the creeping menace of The Turn of the Screw' #historicalfiction #irishwriting historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/vene...

Thank you!

I am over the moon!

Gulp! #TheMaidenofFlorence made it onto the #shortlist! #historicalfiction @historia-hwa.bsky.social Thank you @fairlightbooks.bsky.social for believing in this book and to @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social for the residency that made it possible #firenze #renaissance #irishwriting #writingcommunity

Oh what a great day this is! The Maiden of Florence has made the last 12 on the @historia-hwa.bsky.social Gold Crown award #longlist! #historicalfiction #renaissance #Firenze @fairlightbooks.bsky.social

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A perfect day... end of season at the beach, with a great book:
@catherinekullmann.bsky.social's latest, #LordFredericksReturn, elegantly written #Regency #historicalfiction #bookrecommendation

Thirty years ago today (well, in about an hour's time, to be exact). I have been so lucky. #weddinganniversary

Feast day of St Rose of Lima, holding the baby in this altarpiece by Giambattista Tiepolo, in the church of the Gesuati, on the Zattere, in my most loved city #Venezia She's with other Dominican saints, Catherine of Siena (left) and Agnes of Montepulciano (seated) #Italianart #rococo

233: The Romance of Italy - with Katherine Mezzacappa | The Hobcast Book Show An award-winning Irish author explores how Italy has inspired her writing

Delighted to feature on @hobeckbooks.bsky.social #podcast shows.acast.com/the-hobcast-... #writingcommunity #historicalfiction @presshenshaw.bsky.social

The #feastday of San Rocco (Roch), invoked against the plague since the 14C; he caught it nursing victims. Painted by Giovanni Santi (father of Raphael) showing the plague sore on his leg and by Bernardo Strozzi with the dog who brought him food, and Sebastian, another plague saint #italianart

Thank you!

Oh yes, I am pleased about this! #exam #German @edinburghcollege.ac.uk

My #bookreview of @elodieharper.bsky.social's Boudicca's daughter for @histnovsoc.bsky.social @apollopublishers.bsky.social historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/boud... #historicalfiction 'a compelling account of what happens in the red mist of vendetta'

Do! Then I can pounce on it the moment it gets onto the HNS lists.

My #bookreview of Timothy Crellin's The Land of the Living (Green Place Books) @histnovsoc.bsky.social #historicalfiction #sicilia #cefalu 'sensitivity,lyricism and clear-eyed avoidance of folklorism and sentimentality.' historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-...