OPPORTUNITY: Tickets are on sale now for Morning Tea with Nicky Pellegrino as part of Escape! Photo/supplied
OPPORTUNITY: Tickets are on sale now for Morning Tea with Nicky Pellegrino as part of Escape! Photo/supplied
A literary morning tea with Nicky Pellegrino on Monday, June 6, will have an Italian theme in keeping with the novelist's favourite country - and tickets have gone on sale ahead of the programme launch on April 27.
English-born Pellegrino was living in Auckland when she decided to get onwith the book she had been thinking about - and it was memories of the kitchens and food of her father's native Italy that provided the setting and story.
Pellegrino, also a freelance journalist, says she was a shy, tall-for-her-age girl among her exuberant Italian relatives but "I had a tendency to observe things".
"It wasn't the glamorous Italy of Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan," she says of her childhood holidays in the Naples area, "but I've come to know, and love, stylish Italy as an adult. Research is a fantastic opportunity to spend some time there."
Under Italian Skies was published on April 12 and is Pellegrino's ninth novel. It tells of an Englishwoman - a long-time assistant to a fashion designer - who swaps her London flat for an Italian villa and falls in love with the owner's life.
"I always think I'm going to write a love story," Pellegrino says, "but end up writing about friendship, particularly female friendship".
The books-focused Escape! festival takes place from June 3-6. Tickets on sale now are for an hour with chef Peter Gordon (June 4) and Michael Hurst's one-man show No Holds Bard (June 3 and 4). Tickets to other shows are on sale from April 28.
the fine print What: Morning Tea with Nicky Pellegrino When: Monday, June 6, 10am Where: Baycourt Tickets: $55 from Baycourt or Ticketek.
