Paperback coming soon…last chance to purchase gorgeous hardback edition of La Belle Créole!
The paperback version will be released in May 2017 […]
Chasing Mercedes’ Ghost up Kilimanjaro
Sometimes I think that I am chasing a ghost, a very specific ghost: the Condesa de Merlin (aka La Belle Créole). Throughout my biographical journey, I could always be sure to spy a shared experience, location or event when looking into her life. Of course my own reality was never as exciting or unusual as […]
Diversity in Biography or Why ‘La Belle Créole’ is still so unusual….
Lists – all kinds of book lists – are popular, or so it would seem from the many which appear on social media! So I thought I would do a list as a post: the biographies and memoirs/autobiographies which I most enjoyed or which inspired me. These are “keepers” which are still on my bookshelf […]
La Belle Créole’s Havana: A Walking Tour
This post is inspired by the possibility that many more people will be able to visit Cuba given the numerous discussions currently taking place. Ever wonder about the people who lived in the old palaces and houses of Old Havana? Before the graceful buildings collapsed into multifamily dwellings called casas de vecindad, before some were […]
The Chocolate Challenge
Many thanks to Louisa Treger for inviting me to take up the Chocolate Challenge: three books, three reviews, three types of chocolate. How delicious! You can read Louisa’s take on the challenge on her Facebook page LouisaTregerWriter and you can also follow her on Twitter @louisatreger. Keep an eye out for her upcoming novel, The […]
The Lost Song
Those who have seen the new book trailer for La Belle Créole have probably noticed the song performed throughout the video. A pianist plays at a grand piano while a soprano sings an emotional, Spanish-like song in a beautiful room in an early nineteenth-century house. The general idea is a recreation of a performance at […]
Paris Avant – Searching for Mercedes’ Vanished World
After tracking Mercedes through the streets of old Havana, I thought that Paris would be a relatively easy task. After all, Paris is so well known, so well documented and so well loved. Its famous sights are endless: the grand boulevards, the Tuileries Gardens, the Louvre and Notre Dame. I even had exact addresses, the […]
Old Havana after the Rain
Voyage to Havana part 4
While walking the streets of La Vieja Habana in my quest to retrace the steps of Mercedes Santa Cruz, the Condesa de Merlin, my friend Gerry and I found ourselves caught more than once in a tropical downpour. One day, we were repeatedly drenched. In the former Casa of […]