The Borgias have been my life now for over a year now, this passionate, colorful, clever, violent, powerful family who have suffered so much at the hands of history , their detractors reading gossip and propaganda as truth. My job, to create credible   imaginative, believable characters which are rooted in the time they lived, and which makes you understand their behaviour and enjoy the drama of their lives, without overdosing on sensation and scandal.

Imagine then my amazement when some weeks  ago someone alerted me to a big new drama series about to go out on America television. Neil Jordan (great director and writer)  and Jeremy Irons as the Borgia Pope.  The question of course.  Do I watch it or not?

The answer:   oh no no no…. , or certainly not now.  I am 50,000 words into my own world and my own vision.  The one thing I do not need is someone’s pictures getting in the way of my own. But once the book is finished, I shall watch…. with trepidation  but also great excitement.

The  Borgias. What a family. One could have twenty versions of them and they will still be ripe for more. And now back to the Vatican…..

It was the most extraordinary hour. I must confess I didn’t answerstand everything that was being said, ( the speeches went on quite a while) but it was clear that  the city was very proud of own history, but also the novel which had used the city and the convent as its backdrop.  After it was over we went inside and were allowed to wander ( the nuns were hidden somewhere) aroud the chapel and the anteroom. Then , from the church , came the sound of singing-   Gregorian chant, prepared and performed by one of the city’s choirs

I would  like to thank absolutely everyone in Ferrara, Lauretta, Luca, Elisabetta, Guiliana and many many others for making my stay so rich and memorable.   And to say to anyone planning to go to Italy this summer, that if you miss Ferrara you miss a real jewel…….

Last weekend in the one of the most surprisingly lovely churches in the city of Brighton a group of women – and a couple of intrepid men – got together to put on a mad adaptation of Scared Hearts: an attempt to abridge the novel for three voices (myself included) and highlight the fabulous music which the convent choir would have would sung four hundred and fifty years ago.  We had some thirty hours to set up, rehearse, stage and make it work.  The west end actresses, Niamh Cusack and Deborah Findlay, had not seen the text until I handed it to them , but between them conjured up a host of characters, as well as holding the narration as if it was the most exciting Edgar Allen Poe story.  The choir, led by Deborah Roberts and Lauire Straus, both brilliant singers and musicologists, managed to conduct this most divine sound, Kate Hawnt moved between Serafina,  the novice and Serafina, a sublime singer and and the choir, hidden by nuns habits and wimples, processed chanting and playing a host of 117th century nuns as if they were to the manor born. And Nick Renton, who has directed more great television dramas than most of us have had the time to watch, staged the whole thing on a wing and a prayer ( and a lot of candle light)

In the end, the only thing worse than the fear that we would get it wrong, was the idea that  no one would come, but as we walked out to face the audience to our astonishment the church was full.  The adrenaline of performance always carries one through, whatever, but there were moments  as the drama heightened and the nuns sang when the church was so silent, that you could hear the proverbial pin drop.  I hope those who came got as much out of it as we did. It was such a mountain to climb in so little time, but the view from the top was at times quite breathtaking….

My deep thanks go to every one of the Celestial Sirens ( the aptly named choir) and to Niamh and Deborah and Kate for  giving up of their time, talent and boundless energy to take a risk on something new.

We are very much hoping that there will be footage on U tube. Indeed here is a quick look……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOIWipn3Gbo

And photos here on the website. A week on I think we are all more tired than we could have imagined. Or perhaps that is the shock of living in a country where it seems for this weekend at least  there is no government.  A hung parliament. Even in the most run down convent they managed to vote in an abbess, even if half the votes were rigged. Ah well, the pleasures of modern life.

Anyway – just to say thank you to Dallas, for the vital engagement of the audience, and the great experience of so many younger faces enthralled by history, AND my tour of the art next morning before the gallery opened. If it hadn’t been for the next plane delay ( three hours this time) to Boulder  I would have been in heaven.

Boulder is high enough to be half way to heaven however. I hope Boulder book shop has found some people also interested in talking history.  More while waiting for the next lane to Portland. Now Portland is a city I have been wanted to visit for a very long time time. Firday (16t) night at Powells. Now that is ambition fulfilled.

take care all of you and keep writing and reading.

Dallas, Boulder, Portland, Nashville, Atlantic Beach, Connecticut.  I know that once I get off the plane and start I will get a second wind and enjoy it, since meeting people and talking renaissance history ( and its many and fascinating connections with the present) always lights my fire.  And this is the last time with Sacred Hearts.

So if you find yourself round any of those cities please drop in. The dates and places should be up on my website within the next few hours.

After these next two weeks, I come back and bury myself in the library. I have a mewling puking idea for the next book, and I have to see if it can be fed and nurtured into something more substantial.

And please keep on blogging. It is such a pleasure to hear from you all.

It is quite close to my heart because ,of couse, while the renaissance is known for its beauty and wonder, it was also a time of huge violence and brutality.  That I certainly believe. And given the levels of pain and limits of medicine or even medical hygiene, and the religious emphasis on body versus soul, I thing the human body itself was a more potent , fragile yet powerful object then.  But I throw it open to others to comment. I”m not sure about the ptotocol of an author replying to someone’s review> It might seem a bit self reverential. And thank you for all your comments it feels like we are staring a dicussion now. Yeah!

On Monday I did a great gig in Ben Mcnally’s books In Toronto, but in a huge itlaian restaurant, where of course people yelled and shouted, as italians love to do.  I had brought a cold stowed away in my luggage from London and I had a voice that sounded deep enough to be the only y magnificent. Musica Secreta recorded all the lovelist bits of music which are in the book and ther do indeed have the voices of angels. A real soundtrack of its own. There are samples of it on podcasts and the web site and you can buy the Cd on a link from my site to theirs.  Music Secreta are  women who have given their lives to delve deep into history and bring alive the sounds of women ’s voices as they were 500 yars ago.  They are also enormous fun to work with.

Me – I croak and swallow throat lozenges and with luck some kind of voice will return.,  Otherwise I’ll give the seagulls a run for their money when I hit the ferry out to Victoria island tomorrow. At Cadboro books for anyone local…..

Thanks to you all for your blogs. It makes a real difference to feel one is not alone, even when the hotel room is  empty.   Sarah