An Italian Adventure

Lev's Violin

*A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK* 
 
'Utterly enthralling - a beautifully-written voyage of discovery that takes us deep into the heart of music-making' Deborah Moggach 
 
From the moment she hears Lev's violin for the first time, Helena Attlee is captivated. She is told that it is an Italian instrument, named after its former Russian owner. Eager to discover all she can about its ancestry and the stories contained within its delicate wooden body, she sets out for Cremona, birthplace of the Italian violin. This is the beginning of a beguiling journey whose end she could never have anticipated. 
 
Making its way from dusty workshops, through Alpine forests, cool Venetian churches, glittering Florentine courts, and far-flung Russian flea markets, Lev's Violin takes us from the heart of Italian culture to its very furthest reaches. Its story of luthiers and scientists, princes and orphans, musicians, composers, travellers and raconteurs swells to a poignant meditation on the power of objects, stories and music to shape individual lives and to craft entire cultures.

Utterly enthralling - a beautifully written voyage of discovery that takes us deep into the heart of music-making.

A beguiling quest that draws its author from the Italian heartland of the violin to the edge of Asiatic Russia, told with a passion that is at once gentle and compelling.

Elegant and ambitious ... Attlee pursues her story with honesty, diligence and open-mindedness ... An original and refreshingly unorthodox approach to history

Attlee's love and unbounded enthusiasm for Italy shine through the pages ... She writes with zest about her sleuthing odyssey, her investigations into the art of lutherie and the dynasties dedicated to the crafting of these delightful objects. Whether it be a distant family history, the timber forests of the Dolomites or a momentary encounter, Attlee captures it in firm, fresh prose.

Attlee writes with rare beauty and sensitivity about music, and her love of Italian culture positively sings from the pages ... Deeply absorbing

In limpid, searching prose, Helena Attlee shows us how music can cast spells but also bridge the distance of centuries.

Charming and original ... Attlee has the natural storyteller's gift.

Charming ... Attlee tells the story in easy, luminous prose, infused with a deep understanding for the way human value accrues mysteriously in things, and in the act of making them

Reading Lev's Violin is like listening to a fine instrument: thoroughly relaxing but also exciting, fun yet deeply serious ... with constant surprises and charms

Illuminating, engrossing ... a wide-ranging exploration of the history and cultural significance of the Italian violin

Beguiling and truly original ... An amazing journey ... one of the joys is the glimpses it affords of forgotten historical byways and of a colourful, sometimes roguish cast of characters ... Attlee has such a wonderful way with words that as a reader you almost imagine you can see, as well as hear, Lev's violin

Seductive, captivating ... A book that pleases the more for so neatly resisting characterisation

Helena Attlee is the author of the award-winning Sunday Times bestseller The Land Where Lemons Grow. She has worked in Italy for much of her life, and it has been the inspiration for many of her books.

From the moment she hears Lev's violin for the first time, Helena Attlee is captivated. She is told that it is an Italian instrument, named after its former Russian owner. Eager to discover all she can about its ancestry and the stories contained within its delicate wooden body, she sets out for Cremona, birthplace of the Italian violin. This is the beginning of a beguiling journey whose end she could never have anticipated. 
 
Making its way from dusty workshops, through Alpine forests, cool Venetian churches, glittering Florentine courts, and far-flung Russian flea markets, Lev's Violin takes us from the heart of Italian culture to its very furthest reaches. Its story of luthiers and scientists, princes and orphans, musicians, composers, travellers and raconteurs swells to a poignant meditation on the power of objects, stories and music to shape individual lives and to craft entire cultures.

The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit

The Land Where Lemons Grow

'4 stars. Attlee, who knows and loves Italy and the Italians, takes the reader through the country's scented gardens with her sharp descriptions, pertinent stories and quotes and intriguing recipes. I was there with her' Anna del Conte, Sunday Telegraph 
 
A delightful book about Italy's unexpected history, told through its citrus fruits 
 
The story of citrus runs through the history of Italy like a golden thread, and by combining travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee takes the reader on a unique and rich journey through Italy's cultural, moral, culinary and political past. 
 
'Fascinating . . . A distinguished garden writer, Attlee fell under the spell of citrus over ten years ago and the book, like the eleventh labour of Hercules to steal the golden fruit of the Hesperides, is the result. She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . Helena Attlee's elegant, absorbing prose and sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal, make The Land Where Lemons Grow a welcome addition to the library of citrologists and Italophiles alike' The Times Literary Supplement 
 
'A paradise of citrus is how I always think of Italy too: a place where ice-cold limoncello is sipped from tiny glasses on piazzas, and everything from ricotta cake to osso bucco is enlivened with zest. What a joy, therefore, to read Helena Attlee's The Land Where Lemons Grow, which tells the story of Italy through its citrus fruit' Bee Wilson, Telegraph

Helena Attlee's writing in The Land Where Lemons Grow is so sharp and evocative that she could have been writing about potatoes in Plymouth: She'd still have had me gripped. Ms. Attlee has that rare gift of being able to know an inordinate amount about a subject and yet wear her knowledge so lightly that the tone is anecdotal, not academic. It's a big thing, to pull off such lightness. Through the citrus groves and scented gardens of Italy, she weaves in and out of history and horticulture, fusing them together with stories and surprises, romance and recipes, tastings and travelogues. I loved it

Thrillingly sensual, and zesty in every sense, Helena Attlee is the best of companions as she leads us through sundrenched citrus groves and in and out of history. A book full of surprises, with many curiosities, stories and recipes on the way

Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Inspired and inspiring, in prose as sharp as the fruit it celebrates

This is the first among my books of the year. Every page of Attlee's subtle fusion of history and horticulture made me feel that it's time to pack the bags again for Italy

4 stars. Attlee, who knows and loves Italy and the Italians, takes the reader through the country's scented gardens with her sharp descriptions, pertinent stories and quotes and intriguing recipes. I was there with her

Fascinating . . . A distinguished garden writer, Attlee fell under the spell of citrus over ten years ago and the book, like the eleventh labour of Hercules to steal the golden fruit of the Hesperides, is the result. She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . Helena Attlee's elegant, absorbing prose and sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal, make The Land Where Lemons Grow a welcome addition to the library of citrologists and Italophiles alike

A paradise of citrus is how I always think of Italy too: a place where ice-cold limoncello is sipped from tiny glasses on piazzas, and everything from ricotta cake to osso bucco is enlivened with zest. What a joy, therefore, to read Helena Attlee's The Land Where Lemons Grow, which tells the story of Italy through its citrus fruit

Truly fascinating . . . For many years, Attlee has been collecting evidence for a story of citrus trees in Italy. The result, The Land Where Lemons Grow, is remarkable, excellently produced and essential for all lovers of Italy, their summer libraries and out-of-season itineraries . . . Attlee's book is unmissable for anyone intrigued by the relation between humans' travel, greed and ingenuity and the spread of the plants that we eat, smell and drink

'It would be a treat to find The Land Where Lemons Grow under the tree'

'It turned out to be the book I pressed on friends more than any other this year. If they were bemused, I hope they remained to be charmed. I read it randomly a few pages at a time until there were no pages I hadn't read twice. It was my respite from purposive reading.'

A beautifully written book, infused with the bittersweet scent of citrus fruits and the flavour of Italy

No matter how lovely your holiday destination, this book will make you yearn to be in Italy...An absolute joy

Helena Attlee is the author of four books about Italian gardens, and others on the cultural history of gardens around the world. Helena is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and has worked in Italy for nearly 30 years.

The story of citrus runs through the history of Italy like a golden thread, and by combining travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee takes the reader on a unique and rich journey through Italy's cultural, moral, culinary and political past

Helena Attlee

Helena Atlee’s acutely observed account of the Etna region is refreshingly different. This is travel writing of the quietly classical kind. Attlee tells great stories… It is the food writing, though, that brings you closest to Sicily… It is full of curiosity, personality and, above all, what the wine people call terroir

A scholar of all things Italian, and especially Sicilian, with an eye for the quirky and the poetic, Attlee does for Etna what she did for lemons: she delves deep into the history of the volcano and the relationship of its people to their unpredictable land

Helena Attlee’s The Fire in the Mountain is a richly evocative journey – whether on the rattling circum-Etna railway, on foot through the music-filled streets of Catania at the height of the Saint Agatha festival, at the crater to gaze in awe at the nocturnal pyrotechnics, or in the café, to reward taste buds with iced delicacies once made from the volcano’s winter snows. Atlee makes a compelling case that all of this culture, flavour and spectacle flows – like the lava – from the volcano itself

Thrillingly sensual, and zesty in every sense, Helena Attlee is the best of companions as she leads us through sundrenched citrus groves and in and out of history

She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . [with] elegant, absorbing prose and [a] sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal

Charming and original ... Attlee has the natural storyteller's gift

Attlee has that rare gift of being able to know an inordinate amount about a subject and yet wear her knowledge so lightly that the tone is anecdotal, not academic. It's a big thing, to pull off such lightness

Attlee has such a wonderful way with words

Sicily, Etna and Her People

For centuries, Mount Etna has sent lava to engulf the towns and villages, terraced fields, orchards, vineyards, and citrus groves that nestle across its slopes. But still it remains home to a quarter of Sicily’s population. Why? Because Etna has always rewarded its people after every eruption with a landscape of unparalleled fertility, richness and drama. 
 
In this extraordinary new book, Helena Attlee combines travel writing with history, mythology, geology, gastronomy and horticulture to tell a unique story of life in the shadow of Sicily’s most dangerous and alluring landmark. Venturing through lava-strewn fields and pistachio groves patrolled by armed guards; past dusky, basalt-built farmyards, and caves once used to store snow, Attlee gathers tales of the artists, writers, farmers, and scientists who have for centuries been drawn to this unpredictable landscape: from the early Roman, Arabic and Norman settlers, Romantic poets and Victorian geologists, to the local families who live and work there today. It is at once a compelling account of Sicily’s rich and varied past, and a powerful meditation on humanity’s ever-changing relationship with landscape.

Helena Attlee

Praise for The Fire in the Mountain

Helena Atlee’s acutely observed account of the Etna region is refreshingly different. This is travel writing of the quietly classical kind. Attlee tells great stories… It is the food writing, though, that brin ...

A scholar of all things Italian, and especially Sicilian, with an eye for the quirky and the poetic, Attlee does for Etna what she did for lemons: she delves deep into the history of the volcano and the relations ...

Helena Attlee’s The Fire in the Mountain is a richly evocative journey – whether on the rattling circum-Etna railway, on foot through the music-filled streets of Catania at the height of the Saint Agatha f ...

Helena Atlee’s acutely observed account of the Etna region is refreshingly different. This is travel writing of the quietly classical kind. Attlee tells great stories… It is the food writing, though, that brin ...

A scholar of all things Italian, and especially Sicilian, with an eye for the quirky and the poetic, Attlee does for Etna what she did for lemons: she delves deep into the history of the volcano and the relations ...

Helena Attlee’s The Fire in the Mountain is a richly evocative journey – whether on the rattling circum-Etna railway, on foot through the music-filled streets of Catania at the height of the Saint Agatha f ...

Helena Atlee’s acutely observed account of the Etna region is refreshingly different. This is travel writing of the quietly classical kind. Attlee tells great stories… It is the food writing, though, that brin ...

A scholar of all things Italian, and especially Sicilian, with an eye for the quirky and the poetic, Attlee does for Etna what she did for lemons: she delves deep into the history of the volcano and the relations ...

Helena Attlee’s The Fire in the Mountain is a richly evocative journey – whether on the rattling circum-Etna railway, on foot through the music-filled streets of Catania at the height of the Saint Agatha f ...

Books by Helena Attlee

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