Desmond O'Grady's latest book, "Tuscan Places" - launch at Museo Italiano

Tuscan Places by Desmond O’Grady

book presentation followed by Q&A with the author

Wednesday 19 October 2016, 6.30pm

Museo Italiano, Co.As.It.

199 Faraday Street, Carlton

FREE EVENT

RSVP through the Facebook page of the Museo Italiano or through Eventbrite

What has Tuscany given Australia and what has Australia given Tuscany? Australian writers, artists and scholars have been assessing Tuscany for over a century as Desmond O’Grady recounts in Tuscan Places which compares the reactions to the region of figures such as Robert Hughes, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Peter Porter, David Malouf, Shirley Hazzard, Jeffrey Smart, Germaine Greer, Martin Boyd, Alan Moorehead, and, earlier still, Randolph Bedford and Louise Mack. They learnt a lot but, in ‘claiming their European heritage apart from the imperial midwife’, they also threw new light on Tuscany,

Tuscany has not only been a benchmark for Australians but also provided talented and influential migrants.

Desmond O’Grady is a Melbourne-born journalist who lives in Rome and has published 16 books of fiction and non-fiction. He writes for English-language publications world-wide and also for the Italian press. He was winner of the world tennis championship for journalists in 2001 and, after playing for the Prahran, South Melbourne and University cricket clubs, was opening batsman for the Italian national team which toured England. He is the only Australian writer who has played tennis with Rod Laver, played cricket at Lords and made a film with Claudia Cardinale.