1DST Archives - Duckworth Books

In Green

‘A classic adventure narrative in the vein of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Robert Louis Stevenson… life-changing’ CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment

In his mid-twenties, city-bound and restless, Louis D. Hall found himself uncertain. How to create a life he wanted to lead? Inspired by Don Quixote, he decided to fulfil a childhood dream – to make an uncharted journey on horseback.

After finding his horse, Sasha, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, Louis set off and headed west. His destination: Cape Finisterre, ‘the end of the land’. For three weeks Louis and Sasha survived storms, snow, wolves and the untrodden partisan paths of the Ligurian Alps. But then a young woman arrived with her horse, Istia, and their solitary world was broken. Kiki, adrift with the death of her sibling, joined the journey, and the duo continued together.

With every step and every fall, the pair are forced to unfold and trust in their horses and, eventually, each other. Using old and forgotten routes, guided by strangers and nature’s clues, the travellers unravel into a wilder way of life; united by the mysteries of the horse, enticed by the illusions of adventure.

Rivals of the Republic

Using her supreme knowledge of the period, author Annelise Freisenbruch presents the great new heroine of historical fiction, Hortensia, who must navigate the male-dominated courts of law in her quest to uncover a sinister plot to overthrow the Republic.

Drawing from historical accounts of the daughter of famed Roman orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, Freisenbruch delivers an atmospheric, meticulously accurate and fast-paced story that will have readers craving more. Rome, 70BC. Roman high society hums with gossip about the suspicious suicide of a prominent Roman senator and the body of a Vestal Virgin is discovered in the river Tiber. As the authorities turn a blind eye, Hortensia is moved to investigate a trail of murders that appear to lead straight to the dark heart of the Eternal City.

The Ornatrix

Flavia was born with a birthmark marring her face in the shape of a bird in flight. A dyer’s daughter, she grows up in a secluded little house in the woods, away from prying eyes. Ashamed of the mark, her mother forces Flavia to conceal her face behind a veil. But on the night before her younger sister’s wedding, Flavia does something drastic, something that will draw her into a much wider and stranger world than she could have imagined: the convent of Santa Giuliana, just outside the city walls. There she meets Ghostanza, a courtesan turned widow, whose white-lead painted face entrances Flavia, and whose beauty and cruelty are unmatched. Flavia becomes her ornatrix: her hairdresser and personal maid.

But as white-lead paint rots the flesh below it, the bustling city, and Santa Giuliana, is rotting below the shimmer of wealth and privilege. And Flavia is drawn into a world of desire and jealousy that has devastating consequences. Set in sixteenth century and painted against a vivid historical Italian landscape, rich in description and character and with themes and characters relevant to today, it tackles issues of belonging, female identity and the perception of beauty. It cannot fail to move.

Young Michelangelo

This is a long-awaited and authoritative reinterpretation of the early life and career of arguably the greatest artist in history. Author John T. Spike surveys Michelangelo’s early life from birth to his early thirties, probing the thinking, artistic evolution and yearnings of a young man thoroughly convinced of his own exceptional talent. Spike explores Michelangelo’s involvement in the most troubling controversies of his age, and recreates Florence and Rome with vivid sketches of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Leonardo, Julius II and Machiavelli. This is a prodigiously informative and compelling account that will fulfil the need for a major Michelangelo biography for this generation and many to come.

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