A Tuscan Childhood - Hardcover

Kinta Beevor was five when she first saw her parents' castle in north-west Tuscany during World War I. Her father, Aubrey Waterfield, had fallen in love with this fortress set in the mountain landscapes of the Lungiana. Kinta grew up in three Tuscanies: the Bohemian Tuscany of her parents - a world of writers, poets and painters; the Anglo-American Tuscany of grand villas on the Fiesole hillsides; but most of all the peasant Tuscany of which this book is an evocation. While her parents wrote and painted, Kinta ran barefoot round the castle or accompanied friends such as Fiore, the stonemason, in search of wild mushrooms, or in pursuit of trout tickled in mountain streams. This is a portrait of a family and an account of the courage and good humour of the Tuscan people as they struggled to survive and recover from World War II.