blood and beauty

Went to a stimulating talk tonight at the auditorium in the Uni Club with guest speaker Sarah Dunant.
My, what a journey through the lives of women in Renaissance and her adventures and painstaking discoveries of their lives through art and research.
She is a fantastic speaker, passionate, engaging, humerous and no holds barred when it comes to the lives and stories of courtesans and nuns (about as opposite in a spectrum as one can imagine.)
Her current book is a novel of the Borgias, titled Blood and Beauty.
The rich descriptions of life and images of Renaissance paintings were bold, red,gold and glowing and leaving the building this is how the Uni Club was glowing so seemed like a fitting image...perhaps??

I was lucky enough to spend five days on a creative writing course with Sarah and Gillian Slovo in France nine years ago. Her enthusiasm is as infectious as it was back then. Time to sharpen up the pencils...again!!