When I’d finished writing The Girl from Venice, I knew I wanted to write another book about a girl from the Italian Resistance.
The twins, Gina and Adele, are the fictional daughters of a Portofino fisherman. But they are inspired by the many brave Italian women who fought with the Resistance. After the war, around 35,000 Italian women were recognised as female partigiane combattenti (partisan combatants) and 20,000 as patriote (non-combatant patriots). Gina is one of the former, and Adele one of the latter.
When I started researching about what happened in Portofino during the conflict, I soon discovered that it had been occupied by the German Navy as a headquarters for their coastal defences. I was shocked to learn that the SS incarcerated and tortured political prisoners in a tower on the isthmus. My heart went out to the inhabitants of the village who’d been forced to relocate when concrete sea defences were built, and the quaysides were mined for fear of aquatic landings. Portofino, known today as a mecca for wealthy tourists, became a target for Allied bombing after the Nazis built anti-aircraft and anti-naval batteries on the headland and the portofinesi lived in fear for their lives.
Before I started writing the book, I went on a visit to the area with my hubby. We wandered through the porticoed streets of Portofino, across the piazzetta, and along the quaysides, taking photos and absorbing the unique atmosphere. We stayed in a wonderful agriturismo on a steep hillside overlooking the Tigullio Gulf, where we gazed in awe at the breath-taking views of the Riviera headland and stunning coastline. One day, we drove up into the mountains, stopping off to have lunch in a taverna in the region where Gina and Stefano first fought with the partisans. On a counter by the door, I spotted a book Nonno chi erano i partigiani? (Grandad, who were the partisans?) by Stefano Porcu. The owner of the restaurant only had one copy, but I subsequently ordered it online and read it for further research. I felt a little thrill on hearing from the innkeeper that I was in the right place and that the partisans had, indeed, been in that neighbourhood.
Enzo – Italian nickname of the Englishman in the story – is based on James Frederick Wilde, an escaped British POW who fought with those partisans. I have used many of the skirmishes, ambushes, and marches over the mountains in which he participated, as well as the exhilaration of actions described in the book The Broken Column by C.E.T. Warren and James Benson, as inspiration for parts of my story.
I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.