Harriet Constable - The Instrumentalist and the music of Vivaldi

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have HARRIET CONSTABLE  joining us for an event at Camp Hill School for Girls. Harriet will be talking about her book 'The Instrumentalist' and will be in conversation with Claire from The Heath Bookshop - a huge fan of this brilliant debut novel.

The evening will start with a concert of Vivaldi's music, setting the scene and taking us to the streets and canals of Venice. Harriet and Claire will then be in conversation followed by a book signing.

The book is inspired by the true story of Anna Maria della Pietà, who was an orphan, musical prodigy and student of Antonio Vivaldi. It has been named an Observer top 10 debut for 2024.

Harriet Constable is a writer and filmmaker based in London. Her debut novel, 'The Instrumentalist', sold to Bloomsbury following a seven-way auction in the UK, Simon & Schuster in the US and Harper Collins in Canada. It will publish globally in August 2024, with translation rights so far sold in 20 different languages. 
Harriet’s journalism and documentary work is featured in outlets including The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, NPR, The Economist. She produced for BBC News at Six and Ten during the pandemic, and is a Rough Guide to Kenya co-author. She was part of the team that made the BAFTA-award winning 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room.
Originally from London, Harriet worked at the Financial Times before spending several years in Nairobi and then Johannesburg. She grew up playing the flute and piano and singing with her mother, a classically trained musician.

THE INSTRUMENTALIST: 

Venice. 1704. In this city of glittering splendour, desperation and destitution are never far away. At the Ospedale della Pietà, abandoned orphan girls are posted every day through a tiny gap in the wall. Anna Maria is just one of the three hundred girls growing up within the Pietà's walls – but she already knows she is different. Obsessive and gifted, she is on a mission to become Venice’s greatest violinist and composer, and in her remarkable world of colour and sound, it seems like nothing will stop her. But the odds are stacked against an orphan girl – so when the maestro selects her as his star pupil, Anna Maria knows she must do everything in her power to please this difficult, brilliant man. But as Anna Maria’s star rises, threatening to eclipse that of her mentor, the dream she has so single-mindedly pursued is thrown into peril… From the jewelled palaces of Venice to its mud-licked canals, this is a story of one woman’s irrepressible ambition and rise to the top, of loss and triumph, and of who we choose to remember and those who lie forgotten.

@hariconstable

As always, we look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire