La giovinezza è felice perché ha la capacità di vedere la bellezza. Chiunque sia in grado di mantenere la capacità di vedere la bellezza non diventerà mai vecchio.
(Franz Kafka)
With works published in 100 countries and more than 51 languages Jeffrey Archer is one of the top 25 fiction authors of all time. His books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide and he is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (nineteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries).
To mark the publication of his latest book Next in Line, he tells us about his work, his dreams, and much more.
A few days ago, I happened to be in Ireland’s second city, Cork. The opaque prospect of a routine work trip was brightened when a colleague, friend and host, Daragh, suggested we join the closing evening of the local Italian Film Festival. They were screening Giuseppe Tornatore’s Ennio, so, I happily joined in, and in the end we knew we had seen a great film about a great man.
Expectations behind House of Gucci were massive. Ridley Scott is not only a cult director; his recent experience at a rich-family saga with an Italian twist - All the Money in the World (2017) - was seen as a step towards this film. The cast could not be more charismatic: from Lady Gaga to Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Ledo and Jeremy Irons. The story could not be more enthralling: power, sex, greed and murder: all amongst the inner circle of one of the world’s most famous fashion brands. It felt like an inevitable success in waiting. But was it?
Italian-Australian actress Aliandra Calabrese was born and raised in the sunshine state of Queensland. From a young age, her exploration of her passion for music, acting and dancing grew into a love of performing arts. She talks with us about herself, her career, and new role in NBC Universal's Joe Exotic TV series.
As the first scenes of Drive My Car unravelled, I thought ‘Yes, this is definitely something Murakami would write about…’ and yet, it was not. What happened in the film opening, was a very original and welcomed ‘addition’ to Haruki Murakami’s short story that bears the same name.
The Hong Kong Museum of Art (MOA) has been recently renovated and it was very much worth my second recent visit. A particular exhibition caught my eye: When form matters: following the path of Lui Shou-Kwan to Zen painting.
During a beautiful October day in Rome we meet Gonzalo Golpe and visit Verba Volant, his latest visual project, at the Real Academia de España.
JAGO is an exceptionally talented sculptor and, despite his young age, one of the most internationally successful contemporary Italian artists. At the age of 24 he was selected by prof. Vittorio Sgarbi to participate in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale, exhibiting a marble bust of Pope Benedict XVI which earned him the Pontifical Medal. We met him during the exhibition of his "Pietà" at the Church of the Artists in Rome.
There are many stories surrounding the origins of these very particular structures that can be found in various places on the Adriatic coast. Some think they might date back to the Phoenician times, others that they have more recent origins, and that they were a clever invention to assure a safe shelter to the fishermen who did not have, in this way, to adventure out to rough seas.
Originally from Australia, Taylee Lewis moved to Italy in 2017, after marrying an Italian. She holds a degree in Journalism, a Master’s in International Relations and is now completing an MBA with IE Business School out of Madrid. After starting her career as a finance journalist in Sydney she took up a position as a corporate and government affairs consultant with Weber Shandwick. Her role was to assist multinationals from countries like China, Singapore, Canada and France to navigate the Australian market. This was achieved through improving relations with government, as well as enhancing their corporate image in the eyes of the Australian people.
Making good cartoons is a very serious job, and Luca is one of them. The full-length cartoon just launched worldwide by Pixar is directed by Italian cartoonist Enrico Casarosa and set in the Italian Riviera.
During our classes, Adele* likes to call me ‘Professor’, and every time this undeserved title makes me smile. I tell her that I’m not a Professor, but rather someone who is just sharing with them her passion for writing. We sit in the room that is also a storage for textile products, and read and make comments on what she and the others have written. Adele is an asylum seeker from Togo. Francois*, who likes to write long and detailed stories, is from Congo. Some students come from Nigeria, Cameroon, and other African countries.
Writer, director, producer, actor and musician Justin Butcher is best known for his award-winning solo play Scaramouche Jones, starring Pete Postlethwaite and directed by Rupert Goold. For several years, he has also been involved in theatre activities in Italy, working in collaboration with J. Productions.
Sometimes, you can talk about a place only if you get to know the people who lived there, fell in love with it and work to make it better. A few years ago I found myself at Gaia House, a beautiful, bright-coloured Balinese-style house on top of a cliff on Lamma Island, overlooking a small beach. It belonged to Bobsy Gaia, a truly inspired man whom I had the pleasure to meet again later, in SoHo. Over a long conversation, we talked about living a sustainable lifestyle, based on diet and its impact on our beloved planet.
In the world of sailing, the name of Giovanni Soldini is synonymous with excellence. Originally from Milan, he arrived at sailing at a very young age, collecting incredible results over the span of 25 years. A few days after his latest venture, we joined him to celebrate yet another success.
A few weeks ago, the Italian newspapers proudly reported the victory at the Golden Globes of the song Io Sì by Diane Warren, sung by Laura Pausini, winner in the Best Original Song category. A well-deserved victory, to which we wish all the best in the next round (the most difficult) of the night of the Oscars. Then in May it will be the turn of Italy, with the David di Donatello, and on that occasion it is possible that other supporting elements of the film A life ahead may also receive some recognition.
(Story freely inspired by Emilio Salgari's Black Corsair)
The Black Corsair was a tall, slender man with an elegant bearing. His features were beautiful: a regular nose, two small lips, red like coral, a wide forehead furrowed with a slight wrinkle, which gave his face a melancholy air, and two eyes as black as charcoals with a perfect cut, vivid and animated, surrounded by long and lush lashes.
One day the Corsair arrived in Cadiz, a town located along the southwestern coast of Spain. For some time, in fact, it had been rumoured that a magical treasure was to be found right here…
440 years after Michel de Montaigne, day by day and following the same route, I retraced his footsteps to escape from the world of Trump, Covid and algorithms. 2500 kilometres from Bordeaux to Rome covered in over five months, from June to December 2020, riding my mare, Destinada (or Desti). This is an extract from my travel diary.
There are places that are part of us and, even if life leads us far away, we know that returning there we will find a piece of our soul. There are corners of the earth that smile at us more than others and that we only need to breathe for a minute to still feel ours. There are places where every morning is summer and we stay young forever. Fumone, the Olympus of Ciociaria, is my Ithaca.
Heir to the first great violin schools born and flourished in Italy, Uto Ughi manifested his extraordinary talent from early childhood. At the age of twelve, critics wrote of him: "Uto Ughi must consider himself an artistically and technically mature concert performer".
