Belinda Alexandra will be joining us for a long table lunch at Rick Stein at Bannisters to talk about her stunning new book, The Italian Correspondent.

Belinda Alexandra is an international bestselling author of books including The Masterpiece and Tuscan Rose. The Italian Correspondent is a thrilling post-war time mystery set in Rome, 1951. Veronica Gold is in the city as the correspondent for Vogue magazine. As Italy tries to shake off its past and promote itself as the most glamorous nation in Europe, Veronica is trying to forget her time as a war reporter.

But just as she hopes to lose herself in la dolce vita, three men appear in her life: Lyle Cooper, her ex-husband and an American diplomat; Marcello Fabbri, an archaeologist and one-time partisan now working in the ruins of Pompeii; and the dashing Count Carlo Durazzo, husband of Veronica’s estranged friend, the enigmatic heiress Emerald Evergreen.

Complicated feelings arise, but before Veronica can resolve them, one of these three men is murdered. Veronica is quickly drawn into a sphere of spies and a world on the edge of nuclear war, one where nothing and nobody is quite as they seem.

$95 includes a two-course meal, complimentary glass of bubbles on arrival and tea or coffee.