The Names by Florence Knapp - and Italy

I planned September this year as a month mainly devoted to holidays, and celebrating various publications, before things were disrupted, but a trip to Italy in the company of Kate Ellis and her husband Roger Bullock proved very relaxing, a chance to unwind away from home. And for once I decided that for my holiday reading I'd focus on a novel that isn't a work of crime fiction. There are certainly crimes committed in Florence Knapp's much-acclaimed debut The Names but they are incidental to the main story - or, I should I say, stories.

The premise appealed to me greatly (even if I don't think it's actually true): the idea that one's path through life is affected by the name one is given at birth. Florence Knapp traces a boy's development in seven-year stages, according to whether he is called Gordon (after his bullying father, a doctor), Julian (a name favoured by his mother Cora, as a sort of compromise), or Bear (a name chosen by his sister Maia). I did wonder if the cover quote saying that the novel is 'life-affirming' was a euphemism for 'twee', but it proved to be anything but. 

I really enjoyed this book. The writing is excellent from start to finish and I'm fascinated by the structural premise, one that has always appealed to me - there's a Sliding Doors moment at the start of the book, when Cora is going with Maia to register the birth, and the ways in which Florence Knapp takes the stories from there is consistently engaging. She really is a fine writer and the only question now is: how does she top this achievement?

As for my own writing, my British Library anthology Eat, Drink and Be Murdered was published while I was away, and the previous anthology in the series, Puzzles of the Parish received a wonderful review in Barry Turner's final column on classic crime in the Daily Mail: 'Edwards makes an excellent start with G. K. Chesterton’s sharp-witted Father Brown exposing a religious charlatan who is also a murderer.
The challenge for Edwards is to maintain the standard for the rest of the book. This he achieves magnificently with a rich assortment of astute priests including an amateur detective who recovers a church treasure and a rector who, having disposed of a blackmailer, takes advantage of an open grave made ready for another funeral. While the masters of crime fiction such as Michael Gilbert and Edmund Crispin are well represented, there are rarer names of the genre here. And very good they are, too.'

The Italy trip started in Lucca, a wonderful old walled city that appealed to me greatly; a climb up a tower was rewarded with fantatstic views. There was a trip to Pisa; I've been there twice before, but this was the most enjoyable visit of the three. Moving from Lucca to Genoa involved a stop in Porto Venere; we managed to fit in a climb to the church before having lunch during a prolonged and truly spectacular thunderstorm. 

My daughter Catherine had told me that Genoa was well worth a visit and she was proved right. I liked it a lot and felt that, despite getting around the city a good deal, there was still more to explore. A trip to upmarket Portofino, by boat from Rapallo, was very enjoyable, as was the climb to the church, museum, and lighthouse. Weather conditions prevented a boat trip to Cinque Terra, despite the fact that the sea was quite calm, but we visited Monterosso and Vernazza by train; charming places. I'd like to go back there another time, should the opportunity arise.