Young frances mayes biography

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If a foreigner could become an ambassador for Italy, Frances Mayeswould have been nominated by now. The poet, journalist, travel writer, novelist, and memoirist inspired a generation to visit the Heeled Boot with her book Under the Tuscan Sun, an autobiographical account of moving to Cortona and rebuilding her life from the ground up. (The ensuing movie with Diane Lane only increased Mayes's mystique.) Today the retired San Francisco State writing professor still lives part of the year in her 13th-century home nestled in the Tuscan hills and continues to write honey-soaked prose about the vibrant world of small-town Italy. Every Day in Tuscanyis her third memoir. Goodreads spoke with Mayes about the allure of Bella Italia, why food is so essential, and what she tells writers who want to follow in her literary footsteps.

Goodreads: Your newest book, Every Day in Tuscany, is a sequel to your two previous books, Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany. How does this one differ fro

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Learn about the bestselling writer’s new book, A Place in the World, which explores what home means to her.
as told to Addie Ladner
Unlike your other books, which are more about travel, this one seems rooted in where you live — might the pandemic have had anything to do with that?
During the Covid lockdowns, my husband Ed and I decided to leave what we had thought of as our permanent home. I think those months caused a lot of people to look closely at their lives and goals and home and to reevaluate the future. We can get awfully attuned to routine and the crisis shook up expectations. For me, a born traveler, I felt so trapped. My writing is often tied to travel and that was impossible. We thought our sense of confinement was an individual response but later, of course, we realized we were just part of a national trend and we had contributed to the housing craze that shot up demand and prices all over. I began to think about the question of
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Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes has always adored houses, and when she saw Bramasole, a neglected, year-old Tuscan farmhouse nestled in five overgrown acres, it was love at first sight. That instant infatuation inspired several highly anställda books about taking chances, living in Italy, loving and renovating an old Italian hus, the pleasures of food, books, wine, gardens, and the “voluptuousness of Italian life.” The first book in her Tuscan Trilogy was the phenomenal bestseller, Under the Tuscan Sun, which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two and a half years and was later made into a popular film starring Diane Lane. The other books in the trilogy, Bella Tuscany and Every Day in Tuscany, were also international bestsellers.
She collaborated with her husband, the poet Edward Mayes, on In Tuscany, with photographer Bob Krist and Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style from the Heart of Italy with photography bygd Steven Rothfeld