The Return: The 'captivating and deeply moving' Number One bestseller

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Richard also finds out about the acequias, the unique and ancient Moorish watering systems still used on a community basis by the local farmers and growers. They channel and distribute melt and spring water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, lending the Alpujarras its verdant character and underpinning the rich ecosystem in the valleys. Because Miguel's account follows the disparate fortunes of the entire family, Hislop is able to dramatise many different aspects of the war. Granada itself is a crucible of conflict, claiming several Ramirez victims. The eldest brother, Antonio, fights for the Republic in Madrid and Barcelona. Mercedes sets out for Malaga to find Javier just as it's razed to the ground by Franco's foreign allies. She joins the lines of escaping survivors, eventually travelling to Bilbao and beyond in her increasingly desperate search. The descriptions of war-ravaged Spain, of hand-to-hand fighting, bombardment of civilians, brutal atrocities by both sides and Europe's cold reception of refugees are very powerful. On the surface this melodramatic historical novel sounds appealing and interesting. When I heard the book was set in Thessaloniki (the town of my great grandmother) and that it dealt with Jewish and Sephardic heritage I was intrigued. That was on my mind while reading "The Thread"...Reminded me of my thoughts exactly when many years ago I was devouring "The Island"...

BBC Arts - BBC Arts - Sensuous poetry, stark prose and BBC Arts - BBC Arts - Sensuous poetry, stark prose and

There was, in effect, a “pacto de olvido”, a pact of forgetting,” says Hislop, when we meet over morning coffee in the cafe of a Tunbridge Wells department store – the Hislops and their children live in the nearby village of Sissinghurst. She’s on her way to a book signing, otherwise we would have met at the family home. A wattle-and-daub house, it is 500-years-old and apparently, it’s a miracle it’s still standing.Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a fire sweeps through the thriving multicultural city, where Christians, Jews and Moslems live side by side. It is the first of many catastrophic events that will change for ever this city, as war, fear and persecution begin to divide its people. Five years later, young Katerina escapes to Greece when her home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she finds herself on a boat to an unknown destination. From that day the lives of Dimitri and Katerina become entwined, with each other and with the story of the city itself. Victoria Hislop is a born storyteller and her love and passion for Greece comes through loud and clear with every word she writes.” ★★★★★ reader review for THE FIGURINE. These are memories she treasures because she’s always had a wonderful relationship with her mother, who is now in her eighties and lives close by in Tunbridge Wells.

Spanish Civil War – Victoria Hislop Spanish Civil War – Victoria Hislop

Victoria Hislop read English at Oxford, and worked in publishing, PR and as a journalist before becoming a novelist. She is married with two children. Like the heroine of The Return, Hislop originally went to Granada to learn to dance because she wanted to write a novel about dance; then, like Sonia, she stumbled across stories about the civil war. “I love music and I love to dance. I even dance in my kitchen when I’m cooking.One month on from #thefigurine coming out, here� Victoria Hislopislop with a reading from the novel. recent releases to enjoy whether you're away on holiday or staying at home. Twelve brilliant books to set you up for a summer of reading Now that she has children herself – Emily (18) and William (15) – she finds her father’s behaviour even more inexplicable, especially since her husband is such a devoted father, despite the fact that their children are both so bright and eloquent neither he nor his wife can ever win an argument at home. “We always lose in the battle of words,” she laughs. Pausing to sweep up the crumbs of her toast, Hislop says: “You know, all families have secrets.” Perhaps some have more secrets than others? For instance, her mother has told her how her grandmother, who lived with them when she was a child, had grown up in a mental institution run by her father. One of her sisters had an affair with an inmate, which produced an illegitimate daughter who was adopted. Later, the great-aunt married another patient, a bigamist, who claimed to be a lord. Although Sonia Cameron is completely oblivious of the city’s dark past, a coincidental conversation and some fascinating old photos plunges her into the remarkable story of Spain during the civil war.

The Thread by Victoria Hislop | Goodreads The Thread by Victoria Hislop | Goodreads

Her characters were completely flat. Good or bad, evil or moral. Poor or rich. There was no in-between and very little gray area. As others have mentioned - the rich were generally seen as corrupt and unsympathetic while the poor were honest, hardworking and loving. BORN Victoria Hamson, in Kent, her childhood was difficult, unconventional and sometimes unhappy. Her father drank too much – which explains the accuracy with which she writes about Sonia’s alcoholic husband in The Return – and often directed his unreasonable anger towards Victoria. “I have no idea why this was,” she sighs. In the wake of the military coup led by General Franco, in 1936, the three-year civil war devastated the country,” says Hislop, adding that many Scots made a notable contribution, fighting for the Republican cause, and her book is unashamedly biased anyway, since it’s written from the Left-wing perspective of the war. “When I read from the book in England at author events, I always have to explain the context. People in Scotland never need that. They ask such intelligent questions and they always tell me things I never knew,” she says.The Thread is set in Thessaloniki, Greece and follows the slow-burning romance between Katerina and Dimitri, the former a poor refugee from Asia Minor, the latter the son of a wealthy textile merchant. While Katerina supports her family as an expert seamstress, Dimitri angers his father by siding with the resistance against the occupying German forces in World War II, as the city, once devastated by fire, is torn apart by the Nazi persecution of its thriving Jewish community.

Victoria Hislop - Wikipedia Victoria Hislop - Wikipedia

When Helena inherits her grandparents’ apartment in Athens, she is overwhelmed with memories of the summers she spent there as a child, when Greece was under a brutal military dictatorship. Her remote, cruel grandfather was one of the regime’s generals and as she sifts through the dusty rooms, Helena discovers an array of valuable objects and antiquities. How did her grandfather amass such a trove? What human price was paid for them? Victoria married Private Eye editor Ian Hislop on 16 April 1988 in Oxford; the couple have two children, Emily Helen (born 1990) and William David (born 1993). [8] He does try to sneak up on me when I’m writing, but I’m paranoid about talking about my work, so I’ve told him he’ll know where my next book is set when he gets the postcard from wherever it is that I’m planning to set it. I never show Ian my books until they are finished. He doesn’t say much about them, in any case. My daughter, who is 18, says she has my book by her bed, which means it’s waiting in the pile to be read. My 15-year-old son, however, has read my new book, The Return. He sent me a text saying, ‘Amazing, mum!’ It’s the best compliment I’ve ever had. I treasure it.” Richard also explores the house where Lorca’s family lived during the poet’s final years, and learns how his eventful life was cut tragically short when he was killed in Granada by a fascist firing squad in August 1936.

Praise for Maria’s Island

Although Sofia only reveals that she was raised in a tiny Cretan village before moving to London, she eventually decides to help her daughter learn more by giving her a letter to take to an old friend in Crete. It explores how men can make their lives better by simply changing their diet, exercising and managing their time well. The plot develops without leaving any emotional mark, through very unlikely situations (e.g. a mother who NEVER bothers to go and visit her lost daughter, a father who NEVER shows any sign of compassion toward his son, a murder by bad diet, come on) and it is pretty much devoid of soul as, I suppose, the author doesn't have any intimate knowledge of Greece, of his people, of his history or the imagination to make up for it.