Novel set in rural WALES in the mid 1980s
The Zoom launch of Dinah Jeffries’ new novel The Tuscan Contessa, set in TUSCANY
23rd July 2020
The Zoom launch of Dinah Jeffries’ new novel, The Tuscan Contessa, set in Tuscany
In the past it has been a delight and pleasure to attend book launches but in the current situation technology has come to the rescue. I wish I had shares in Zoom, is all I can say!
It must be a challenge for the co-ordinator to manage the people attending – in this instance it was the lovely Chloe from Penguin. There were around 30 people who logged in.
Zoom does take a little practice. The more you take part as an individual, the more you find your comfort zone. You can chat in written form, perhaps pose questions on the right if you find the icon (it’s quite obvious once you know how!). You can also launch a clapping or thumbs up emoji which hovers on your personal screen for 10 seconds or so. The polite thing is to mute yourself so that any noisy distractions going on around your device don’t interfere with the author speaking. It was necessary in this case! One of the TF cats decided to get in on the action and started pushing a pen around on the desk, which caused the ripple effect of knocking several books onto the floor. Not to mention the random phonecall that came in on the landline. I was on one Zoom launch recently when one of the attendees has to sort out their Tesco delivery which had arrived early. Ah, this working from home lark, there’s a lot to be said for it but it is not without its distractions!
The Tuscan Contessa is Dinah’s first novel set in Europe and she was drawn to revisit the country, spurred on by fond memories of being an au pair in San Gimignano, when she was a young woman. This is her seventh novel – the others have all been set in South East Asia and India and Sri Lanka. What made her choose this setting? She said that she felt “Italy chose me“.
Her publisher and editor shared that she herself had learned so much from reading the novel, about the Resistance and the Partisans and the bleak days under WW2 German occupation. And that is what is so lovely about Dinah’s books. Her novels are perfect examples of what TripFiction is all about, you can just taste and smell and feel the atmosphere. You travel into the book and feel you are there! And just look at what one of the attendees said in the chat option! Perfect #literarywanderlust but terrible on the pocket!
It was lovely seeing so many familiar faces on the Zoom conference, after such a long period of absence. There is nothing quite like meeting up with the book community face to face (often over a glass of wine).
With many thanks to Chloe Davies at Penguin for the invitation to join.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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