author
Cecilia Maria Pearse
Born into a celebrated opera family, this writer brought both musical history and practical home knowledge to the page. Her books range from a memoir of the great tenor Mario to a detailed, hands-on guide to growing and cooking vegetables.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Brighton on December 24, 1853, Cecilia Maria de Candia later became Mrs. Godfrey Pearse. She was the daughter of two famous opera singers, Giulia Grisi and Giovanni Matteo de Candia, better known as Mario, and she grew up close to the world of music and performance.
That background shaped one side of her writing life. She wrote The Romance of a Great Singer: A Memoir of Mario, preserving memories of her father and the artistic circle around him. She also wrote The Kitchen Garden and the Cook, first published in 1913, an alphabetical guide that combines advice on cultivating vegetables with recipes for preparing them.
Her work has an appealing mix of intimacy and usefulness: one book looks back on a remarkable musical life, while another is grounded in everyday cooking and gardening. She died in Bordighera, Italy, on May 26, 1926.