Tiepolo Blue set in Cambridge and London

Submitted: 30th May 2022

Tiepolo Blue set in Cambridge and London

Do you recognise the name Tiepolo? Giovanni Battista Tiepolowas an Italian painter and printmaker from Venice who painted in the Rococo style (an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style). He was considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. In this novel, a Cambridge professor has a great interest in him and there’s a cross over from the academic world to the artistic one.

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Boarding Pass Information: Tiepolo Blue

Destination : Cambridge and London

Author guide: James Cahill

Genre: historical

Food and drink to accompany: Italian pasta with a twist

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A sad novel and a poignant one too. A professor in his forties lives a secluded life so living in the city of Cambridge and working ina college seems apt. He is persuaded to move to London and escape the safety of that world and get a job in an art museum in London. This novel showcases how a place can transform you and give you a new outlook on life but also damage you.

In Cambridge, this man, the only son of elderly parents is lonely and alone. His world is small but safe and he has lived a sheltered life in more ways than one. He ‘s a great professor but not prepared for a life outside of these walls. On moving to London, the man transforms and not always for the better. In fact you could say the man spirals downwards from this moment on.

In London, he discovers the world of Soho and everything that goes with it and starts to question his identity and preferences. He does all of this with the help of his friend and fellow academic Valentine Black who, despite his name, has nothing lovely about him. The transition Don goes through is hard to read and painful at times and so I was grateful for his love of Tiepolo whose art lifted me out of the darker points of the novel.

BookTrail Travel to the locations in Tiepolo Blue

As for setting, it’s a fascinating mix of worlds where you start in academia and end up in the art world and Soho. Don is an out of touch and rather pompous academic who hasn’t a clue about the real world. I read how he started in Cambridge and ended up in London and Soho at that. A story that was painfully fascinating in so many ways.

Tiepolo is someone I had not heard of but this novel made me google him and discover his work. That was an unexpected joy of this novel. I know little about art but finding out about this enigmatic artist who Don was fixated on, was a definite plus.

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Tiepolo Blue set in Cambridge and London