Still life
(Book)

"Author of Tin Man"--Dust jacket.

Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs sink villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian intent on salvaging paintings from the ruins. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and paint a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades. Returning home to London, Ulysses re-immerses himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot - a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics - all the while carrying with him his Italian evocations. So, when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate: he must return to the Tuscan hills. ,From the back cover.