A disgraced former MP, Teddy Chesterton, is dying.

He wants to put things right with his ex-wife, Laura, the only woman he has ever loved, but who left him after believing he deceived her.

Teddy finds out that Laura has recently been widowed and invites her to come with him to Venice.

To his surprise, she accepts.

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They first meet at a gallery where Teddy’s university friend, Paul Merrick works, and Laura is offered the chance to work in London to help stage an exhibition of paintings by Tiepolo.

Paul asks Laura to do him a favour and authenticate a sketch by the younger Tiepolo. She is told subsequently that what she believed to be a genuine Tiepolo was a fake, and her reputation in the art world is ruined.

She blames Teddy for his part in getting her involved with Paul. They divorce, and Teddy goes to prison for money laundering.

Upon his release, he visits Paul, who explains that he had nothing to do with the sketch being a fake and that it was copied by a forger to whom he had unwittingly sold the original.

In Venice, Teddy gives Laura a pile of papers that prove Paul did not set out to deceive her about the sketch he asked her to authenticate.

Teddy knows that he has done what he set out to do, even if everything is just too late.

My Review

If you are looking for a fast paced thriller, Late Venetian is not for you. But it’s already one of my favourite books of 2025 so far. I’m not sure why – maybe because the two main characters are in their late seventies looking back (no I’m not that old!), but there are still so many things I can identify with. First of all, I live in Gloucestershire where they move with the children, but while I am an art fan and paint a bit, I have never ventured into politics.

The book is written from the points of view of Laura (who is Jewish as was my mother), and Teddy, whose turn of phrase made me laugh. I once worked with someone who always referred to her parents as the ‘Aged Ps’, so it made me laugh when Teddy uses that phrase (though he more usually refers to them as Ma and Pa). For those who like me had to look it up, it’s from Dickens’ Great Expectations. There are so many other words and phrases he uses that made me chuckle and even laugh out loud. Not very PC though, so don’t be shocked or offended. I’ve met a few ‘Teddys’ and that’s just how they speak.

I am still not quite sure why Laura married him though. He’s a bit of a cad and a bounder (I think he’d approve of the description), while Laura is just so nice. He’s not even handsome, quite short, and a bit chubby, with pink cheeks. He refers to his old school Harrow as ‘The Dump’, and talks about fagging as being not that bad, unless you looked like a choir boy, which he didn’t.

There’s a warmth about Laura’s side of the story with her family in New York, and I loved her relationship with art teacher James after she divorces Teddy. Poor Teddy. I think in reality, he’s a bit of an anachronism.

I almost forgot to mention the part where Laura’s second husband James takes her to see the Severn bore. She had no idea what it was, but of course living so close, we have seen it many times. It’s quite the spectacle and would have been a real treat. Oh and I’ve just signed up for a free art taster class – haven’t really done much since Covid – must be inspired by James.

Many thanks to @ZooloosBT  for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

“Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.

“After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.

“I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction, engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous magazines, as well as poetry and a guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.

“My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that. I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.”

Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223607899-late-venetian
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/latevenetian-zbt