Lead Review

  • Book: A Book of Secrets
  • Location: Amalfi Coast
  • Author: Michael Holroyd

Location

Content

The point of reference in this subtle paean to the art of biography is a sun-drenched villa on the Amalfi coast, renovated in the early 1900s by Lord Grimthorpe, who hoped to make it a fashionable retreat for the arty set. Holroyd not only gives us the story of the villa, its owner and, above all, the many women with whom Grimthorpe’s life intersected, but also his own story. Humane and sensitive, his book glows with the energy of lives restored, reanimated and celebrated. (Sarah Bakewell, The Sunday Times, November 2011)

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