Sept
17

RYE LITERARY FESTIVAL: THE MARCHESA

Sarah talks about the challenges of writing “turn the page” novels set in the past while still getting all the history right. Not as easy as it may sound as she found over the years when it comes to bringing alive the Italian renaissance.

And most recently the redoutable character of Isabella d’Este, The Marchesa of Mantua

Starts: 15:00

Duration: 1 hour

Venue: The George In Rye TN31 7JT

Book tickets.

https://box-office.ryeartsfestival.org.uk/sales/events/2025/54th-annual-festival---2025/sarah-dunant-the-marchesa??utm_source=tourist.org.uk&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=event&utm_term=rye

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Sept
19

THE MAGNIFICENT, MONSTROUS MARCHESA at the Budeligh Salterton Literary Festival

Chaired by the terrific novelist Clare Clark, this conversation with Sarah Dunant will range far and wide through the wonders of the Italian renaissance and in particular the challenges of bringing to life one of its most formidable females. Pictures will be painted in words and for those who would like to see on the page , the novel is avaiable for sale and signing by Sarah.

Venue Templeton Church

Tickets. £12.00

https://budlitfest.org.uk/event/sarah-dunant-the-marchesa/

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ARCHIVE FEVER ILLUSTRATED LECTURE @ WARWICK WORDS HISTORY FESTIVAL
Oct
3

ARCHIVE FEVER ILLUSTRATED LECTURE @ WARWICK WORDS HISTORY FESTIVAL

Want to know what the inside of an old renaissance archive looks like? To see the shelves groaning with folders full of documents, in this case the voluminous correspondence of the renaissance’s greatest female art collector, Isabella d’Este. To get a taste of archive fever ,breathing in all that dust from disintegrating paper and ink? And then how to spin all those thousands and thousands of words into a page turning novel which gets the history right. Join Sarah for a remarkable illustrated journey into the past.

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Sept
4

NATIONAL GALLERY ON LINE BOOK CLUB

The Marchesa will be the subject of the National Gallery’s online book club this September. Sarah will be in the National Gallery studio in conversation with one of its great lecturer/guides Sian Walters, and anyone and everyone can join in on line with questions, comments and thoughts about the novel, Isbaella herself, the art she collected and the renaissance in general. Fun should be had!

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/sarah-dunant-on-the-marchesa-online-members-book-club-04-09-2025



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Author Talk: The MARCHESA
Aug
20

Author Talk: The MARCHESA

Free entry.

The Sunday Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Italian Renaissance novels, The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan and Blood and Beauty, has an exceptional talent for breathing life into history. Now Sarah Dunant turns her discerning eye to the foremost female art collector and patron of the Renaissance — Isabella d’Este, the Marchesa of Mantua — in a bold, new history that blends fiction with biography and art.

Signed books will be available to buy on the day.

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Unearthing the Past
Jun
30

Unearthing the Past

To coincide with the publication of The Marchesa, a series of five fifteen-minute original essays for BBC Radio 4 on the life, letters and times of Isabella d’Este, and the way the best of historical fiction challenges us to make imaginative journeys into very different worlds than our own.

Monday 30th June – Friday 4th July. 11.45 am

Then on BBC sounds. Listen now!

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