I'VE mentioned elsewhere on this website that Mira and I have been working on a new book since 'Fireflies' was first published. Well here it is: Memories of Eden: A Journey through Jewish Baghdad.

The book is light years away from Tuscany, and equally as far from the  Baghdad that we see on our TV screens every day.

It's based on letters, notes and little essays Mira's mother, Violette Shamash, started writing to us when we left London to begin our Chianti adventure. Throughout our years in Collelungo, Mira carefully archived them in the Mac when I wasn't looking, thinking 'one day, we might make something of all this...'

Sadly, Violette passed away in 2006. Her  memoirs were simply intended for the immediate family, but as a social record of a fascinating and previously unrecorded period of life in a country now in turmoil they are a remarkable testament. 

I hope you'll spare a moment to take a look at the new website I prepared, and follow the blog.