Welcome to the world of Giovanni Bresciano and
his creators.
Bresciano saw the light of literary day in 2009 when Sam Benady and Mary Chiappe were chatting idly over a coffee about books they would like to write.
They first met circa 1945* in Brympton School. Friendship really developed once in Grammar School, the result of shared love of table tennis, puns and very bad jokes. Both left Gibraltar at some stage, and both eventually returned... and picked up the friendship again.
The present literary collaboration began by chance. Sam had several books under his belt and Mary had also written a couple. Mary spoke vaguely of one day setting a book in 1813 when Jane Austen's hero from 'Persuasion' served in Gibraltar. Sam's eyes lit up and he began to rhapsodise about a yellow fever epidemic that year in Gibraltar.
And the next logical step seemed to be to join forces and write... a whodunnit – given Sam's track record of writing his own Sherlock Holmes stories set in Gibraltar, and Mary's love of detective fiction and ability to watch even the most dire detective fiction on T.V.
The Bresciano mysteries are set in Gibraltar and the surrounding area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and feature Giovanni Bresciano – of mixed Genoese and English parentage, who is very good at spotting clues and still getting things wrong for much of the time.
What began as a one-off, became a series. Since their first novel in 2010 they have gone on to write a total of six, with the seventh due out in 2015. Gibraltar's own detective series.
“Would never have done it alone,” they both admit.
“Great fun.”
“Hard work.”
Of course they disagree, argue and – like their hero – blunder along and always manage to resolve matters. All this without ever having been tempted to murder each other... well... maybe once or twice!
* Totally uninteresting factoid: They probably first met five years earlier, in July 1940, when as toddler and sub-toddler they embarked on the SS Athlone Castle for a five-year exile in Britain - the 'Evacuation.'
ABOUT THE DISPUTED BRESCIANO PORTRAIT....
We,
the authors, wish we knew more about the portrait, which is in the
possession of an elderly lady, now resident in Spain, but born in
Gibraltar, who assured us that she was a descendent of Giovanni
Bresciano and had been told by her parents that the portrait was his.
She allowed us to photograph it – a hasty and amateur affair as we
had only an indifferent camera available – but with the proviso
that she remain anonymous. We have therefore desisted from trying to
trace the details of her ancestry. However, we hope that further
research will determine if Bresciano's son, Luca, had any
descendents.
As for his name, it was definitely Giovanni and he should not be confused with his distant relative, John Bresciano, who had a stationery shop in Waterport Street in the early 19th century and appears briefly in "The Murder in Whirligig Lane" and in the “The Dead Can't Paint”
Although the spelling 'Breciano' appears occasionally in written documents of the time, we have preferred the spelling 'Bresciano' as there is no doubt that, although his father came to Gibraltar from Genoa, the family originated in the Italian town of Brescia, near Lake Garda (A cousin is said to have been a pupil of the great Guarneri in nearby Cremona).
As for his name, it was definitely Giovanni and he should not be confused with his distant relative, John Bresciano, who had a stationery shop in Waterport Street in the early 19th century and appears briefly in "The Murder in Whirligig Lane" and in the “The Dead Can't Paint”
Although the spelling 'Breciano' appears occasionally in written documents of the time, we have preferred the spelling 'Bresciano' as there is no doubt that, although his father came to Gibraltar from Genoa, the family originated in the Italian town of Brescia, near Lake Garda (A cousin is said to have been a pupil of the great Guarneri in nearby Cremona).
BRESCIANO'S FAMILY TREE
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This family tree is incomplete: further information will be found in book 7: The Dead Can't Paint.
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