A great read for the flight home from Tashkent, on Uzbekistan Airways….. I needed something to distract me, and In the Company of the Courtesan did just that.
Initially set in the decadent days of Renessaince Rome during the early 16th century, the action moves to Venice when courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf protector-cum-friend Bucino flee from the sack of the Eternal City by the army of the Holy Roman Empire.
Once safely in Venice, the plot turns to tell how Fiammetta rebuilds her business and her wealth by taking a number of lovers ranging from a Saracen to a senator, and taking in Titian and Aretino en route.
(Sadly In the Company of the Courtesan didn’t quite keep me going for the whole flight, and although I tried to get similarly stuck into James Bradley’s The Resurrectionist, both during and after the flight, it turned out to be one of those few novels that I give up on and leave unfinished….)
Amazon.co.uk link: In the Company of the Courtesan – Sarah Dunant