APRIL 2025
Delighted to report that The Glassmaker will come out in paperback on 8 May in the UK, and 17 June in the USA. Both covers will be different from the hardbacks, and from each other. Why? I hear you ask. Hardback covers tend to be artier and more subtle, more of an 'object'. Paperbacks need to be punchier, sell what they are more directly. In both cases the publishers (two different companies, by the way) wanted to emphasize Venice on the cover, to tempt holiday/vacation readers, I expect. See what you think. And note, they're even punchier IRL, with embossments etc.
Don't ask me to choose; I like them both!
OCTOBER 2024
In September The Glassmaker was published in Germany, the UK and Italy. I was very busy racing around until the other day Covid tripped me up. My brain has gone mushy, so instead I refer you to this interview I did with the website Ytali not long ago.
That, and some photos of Moments and Beautiful Things. Here we go:
The incredible Fitzrovia Chapel where we held the UK launch party
The gorgeous sprayed edges of the UK special edition for indie bookshops
The massive Italian ad at a bookshop next to the Duomo, Milan
My trusty companion Sarah Cuminetti, who translated my long answers into even longer Italian, and made me laugh
Filmmakers telling me what to do at the Ercole Moretti workshop. Check out all the glass cane!
Ercole Moretti designed the Orsola pearl to go with the Italian book
AND this: the Chevalier Necklace. First jewelry I've ever had named after me!
As precious, a friend gave me her grandmother's gondola brooch
And finally, a beautiful bracelet my UK publicist Liz Dawson made for me from beads HarperCollins commissioned from the lovely Sam Sweet, who taught me how to make beads.
It has been that kind of memorable month. Now The Glassmaker is out in the world being read, and I welcome hearing what you think. Feel free to email me at
AUGUST 2024
It's supposed to be vacation month, yet I am busier than ever, and have been since June. Book tour in USA, Italian prepublication stuff in Venice, writing articles for UK press you'll see in September, finalizing UK book events and Italian book tour, and signing 1800 copies of a special edition of The Glassmaker for UK indie bookshops. Next week is my first UK book event, at the Edinburgh Book Festival. For more information about where and when I'll be this autumn, click on EVENTS.
Here are a few photo highlights of the past couple of months:
Checking out Dale Chihualy glass at the Dallas Art Museum just before going onstage for an event. Amazingly, these were commissioned for a wedding, and the family donated them to the Museum afterwards!
I spent an afternoon and evening with a group of Italian influencers in Venice at a celebration called the Redentore, which marks the end of the Plague of 1575-6. (You'll read about that in The Glassmaker.) There are fireworks over the water, watched by people on hundreds of boats. Here are the influencers at work, looking for the perfect shot to put on TikTok and Instagram...
I did get my own moment of glamour:
Finally, signing 1800 copies of a book is a surreal experience:
AND, it's a special edition with sprayed edges of a Venetian scene!
Sprayed edges are all the rage in the UK, and these are pretty spectacular. You can get these copies only at UK independent bookshops, so support your local and head down there from 12 September! (I don't think they are available online, but will check that and post here and on social media.)
JUNE 2024
I am delighted to say that THE GLASSMAKER is published today in the USA and Canada!
Don't worry, non-North American readers, your chance will come soon:
3 July: Australia and New Zealand
3 September: Germany
12 September: UK
17 September: Italy
14 October: Spain
And other countries after that
MAY 2024
Last week I accompanied a group of French journalists to Murano and Venice to see some of the places where The Glassmaker takes place. We talked, we walked, we ate (oh, how we ate!), I read a couple of passages from the book on the sites where they happened. Best of all, we visited glassmakers at work. Not demonstrating for tourists; just going about the business of their day, which involves shaping molten glass into beautiful objects. We saw:
DAVIDE FUIN making goblets:
AMY WEST glass artist showing us how to make a bead:
CESARE TOFFOLO's lampworkers:
And FABIANO AMADI making a vase that weighed 70kg!
They got me to mess about with some hot glass. I was...tentative!
All for the sake of this book, which will be published in France on 23 May. Note how well the jacket cover matches the canal water!
***
APRIL 2024
The 2024 publication schedule for The Glassmaker is beginning to take shape! First off the mark is France, bringing the book out before the Olympics swamps all French media. Other countries swiftly follow:
23 May – France – as La Fileuse de Verre
18 June – USA
3 July – Australia and New Zealand
3 September – Germany
12 September – UK
14 October – Spain
Others will follow, and I’ll update here. For now, Vive la France!
