Timothy Holme (1928–1987) was an English born, but latterly Italian resident,

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

. He is best known for his biography of

Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (, also , ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays ...

, the Venetian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

, and for his series of five

mystery novels Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...

featuring the fictional

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and High ...

detective Achille Peroni. Holme's parents were the producer and curator

Stanford Holme Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and the ...

and actress and author

Thea Holme Thea Holme (nee Johnston, 1904–1980) was a British actress and writer. Holme was born Thea Johnston in 1904. Her father was the architect Philip Mainwaring Johnston. She studied art at The Slade and then theatre at the Central School of Dram ...

. His maternal grandfather was the architect

Philip Mainwaring Johnston Philip Mainwaring Johnston (1865–1936), also known as PM Johnston, was a British architect and architectural historian. Education Philip attended King's College School, London. He studied drawing and painting under Professor Delamotte at K ...

. He began his working life in the theatre, switching to journalism after seven years of acting. On holiday in Italy, he met and married his Italian teacher, Bianca. They settled in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

, where he wrote several non-fiction books (including the biography of Goldoni) and the five Peroni mysteries. He died in Italy in 1987.

Works

Non-fiction * ''A Servant of Many Masters: The Life and Times of Carlo Goldoni'' (1976) * ''Vile Florentines: The Florence of Dante, Giotto and Boccaccio'' (1980) Novels * ''The Neapolitan Streak'' (1980) * ''A Funeral of Gondolas'' (1981) * ''The Devil and the Dolce Vita'' (1982) * ''The Assisi Murders'' (1985) * ''At the Lake of Sudden Death'' (1987) Stage Plays * "The Door" * "Tall Story"

References

1928 births 1987 deaths English biographers English crime fiction writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century British biographers {{England-writer-stub