Gaia Servadio

Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio^[1] (13 September 1938 – 20 August 2021) was an Italian writer.^[2]

Gaia Servadio
Hosting After Dark in 1988
Born	Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio 13 September 1938 Padua, Italy
Died	20 August 2021(2021-08-20) (aged 82) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Writer
Spouse(s)	William Mostyn-Owen (c. 1961–1989) Hugh Myddelton (c. 1995-2021)
Children	3, including Allegra Mostyn-Owen

Early life and career

Servadio was born in Padua, the daughter of industrial chemist^[3] Luxardo Servadio and wife Bianca Prinzi.^[4] Her father was Jewish and her mother was Sicilian and Catholic.^[5] She received a bachelor's degree from London's Camberwell School of Art.^[4]

Her first novel Tanto gentile e tanto onesta, aka Melinda, was published in 1967 by Feltrinelli in Italy and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK, and was "a runaway success".^[4]

Personal life

Servadio was married to the British art historian William Mostyn-Owen c. 1961–1989, and they had three children, Owen (b. 1962), Allegra (b. 1964) and Orlando (b. 1973).^[6] In 1968, they were living in "23 rooms or so" of one wing of Aberuchill Castle, Perthshire, Scotland.^[7]

Their daughter Allegra, an art teacher, was the first wife of the politician Boris Johnson.^[8] Their son Orlando is an artist and a painter.^[9]

Servadio lived in Belgravia, London.^[10] Following her divorce from Mostyn-Owen, in 1995 Servadio married Hugh Robert Myddelton, of Chirk Castle in Wales, another former Etonian.^[11] In 2001 their surname was changed to Myddelton Biddulph, and they became Hugh Robert Myddelton Biddulph and Gaia Servadio Myddelton Biddulph.^[12] They remained married until her death.^[13] She died on 20 August 2021.^[14][15]

Works

Fiction

• Tanto gentile e tanto onesta (Feltrinelli, 1967)
• Don Giovanni e L'azione consiste (Feltrinelli, 1968)
• Il Metodo. Milano: Feltrinelli. 1970.
• Un'infanzia diversa (Rizzoli, 1988)
• Il lamento di Arianna (La Tartaruga, 1988)
• La storia di R. (Rizzoli, 1990)
• Abramo, La vallata. 1990.
• E i morti non sanno (Dario Flaccovio Ed., 2005)
• Raccogliamo le vele - Autobiografia (Feltrinelli, 2014)
• Servadio, Gaia (2017). Didone Regina. Milano: Frassinelli. ISBN 97-88-89342-023-5.
• Giudei, Milano, Bompiani, 2021.

Music

• La vera Traviata. Libretto, in Angelo Inglese, cantata scenica in un prologo, 7 scene ed epilogo, 2013.
• The Last Zodiac, Poems, in Marcello Panni, 12 Lieder for voice and orchestra, 2015.

Non-fiction

• Angelo La Barbera. A profile of a Mafia Boss, London, Quartet Books, 1974.
• Mafioso, London, Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1976.
• To a Different World, London, Hamish Hamilton 1979.
• Luchino Visconti, Mondadori, 1980.
• La Donna del Rinascimento, Garzanti, 1986.
• Traviata. Vita di Giuseppina Strepponi, Rizzoli, 1994.
• Servadio, Gaia (1993). Incontri. Forster, Sraffa, Lowell, Matta, McCarthy. Abramo. ISBN 978-88-8324-056-0.
• Mozia. Alla scoperta di una civiltà scomparsa, Flaccovio Dario, 2003.
• Servadio, Gaia (2004). Rossini. Una vita. Dario Flaccovio. ISBN 978-88-7758-554-7.
• Sammezzano, London, Idea Books, 2007.
• Il Rinascimento allo specchio, Milano, Salani, 2007.
• Gods, Sailors and Merchants. The Whitakers and Marsala wine, Torino, Allemandi&C, 2009
• Incoronata pazza. Il mistero di Giovanna, figlia di re, madre di re, regina sacrificata, Milano, Salani, 2010.
• C'è del marcio in Inghilterra, Milano, Salani, 2011.
• Poetry. Tuscany and Umbria, a collection of Poetry of Place, London, Eland, 2011.
• Gioachino Rossini Una vita, Feltrinelli 2015.
• I viaggi di Dio, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2016.
• L'italiano più famoso del mondo: vita e avventure di Giovanni Belzoni, Milano, Bompiani, 2018.
• A Wartime Childhood, London, John Sandoe, 2020.

Curatorial

• Ancient Syrian writings: Syrian preclassical and classical texts, Damascus, General Secretariat of Damascus, 2009. Government publication.