The Book
Meetings With Mozart
Mozart's genius, fiery energy, wonderful sense of fun and extraordinary musical output make for a fascinating life story. Meetings with Mozart taps into that with a parallel modern story focusing on Mozart's own credo: ‘Neither a lofty degree of intelligence, nor imagination, nor both together, go to the making of genius. Love, Love, Love. That is the soul of genius.’
Horace, a retired opera director, engages with a group of Mozart enthusiasts to help them discover his idol’s profound contribution to humanity – love.
Set in eastern South Africa, with its lush midlands, soaring mountains and arid bushveld, Meetings with Mozart vividly evokes the sense of time and place of its milieu: the fragrance of its flora, the music of its birdcalls, the torrential storms of its summers. The narrative interweaves the high – and the low – points of Mozart’s life and his music genius, with the lives of present-day characters.
The Author
William Charlton-Perkins, a journalist and columnist, is one of South Africa’s eminent opera connoisseurs. He grew up with his three siblings in the Natal Midlands, in a home that brimmed with their parents’ passion for the arts—a passion he inherited. A lapsed amateur pianist who has regarded Mozart as his musical deity since childhood, it is perhaps inevitable that Meetings with Mozart is his debut novel. Find out more at his website: williamcharltonperkins.com
How the Book Came To Be
William explains: “I grew up as a shy little boy who listened to classical music at an early age. For four decades, my bi-monthly Classical Notes column in Durban’s daily newspaper, The Mercury, was the only one of its kind in South Africa, completely focused on the world suggested by its title.
My novella, Meetings with Mozart, began life as a libretto for an opera about Mozart. Due to a career change, the composer-friend with whom I’d planned to collaborate never wrote a score. So, having written more than 5000 words, in what felt like an unstoppable flow, I set the MS aside for a while, then decided to take the plunge and turn it into a self-standing book.”
The Illustrator
For most of her working life Christine Stilwell (née Riekert) has been involved with books and libraries. She is a professor Emeritus and research fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Christine has always been interested in drawing and was fortunate to join a group attached to the studio of the late Daryl Nero on two occasions, as well as having some sessions attached to the studio of Louise Hall. She grew up in the Eastern Cape Province with three siblings and enjoyed early exposure to music by her mother who played the violin, piano and had her voice trained. She has two sons and two granddaughters with whom she spends many happy hours drawing. She lives in the coastal village of Onrus, in the Western Cape, South Africa, where she draws, walks her whippet, does yoga and sees her friends.
RELEASE DATE: 28/01/2025 ISBN: 9781835741221 Price: £7.99
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