The Instrumentalist

I will be remembered. My life will mean something. Venice. 1704. In this city of glittering splendour, desperation and destitution are never far away. At the Ospedale della Pietà, abandoned orphan girls are posted every day through a tiny gap in the wall. Anna Maria is just one of the three hundred girls growing up within the Pietà’s walls – but she already knows she is different. Obsessive and gifted, she is on a mission to become Venice’s greatest violinist and composer, and in her remarkable world of colour and sound, it seems like nothing will stop her. But the odds are stacked against an orphan girl – so when the maestro selects her as his star pupil, Anna Maria knows she must do everything in her power to please this difficult, brilliant man. But as Anna Maria’s star rises, threatening to eclipse that of her mentor, the dream she has so single-mindedly pursued is thrown into peril…

Harriet Constable

Harriet Constable is a writer and filmmaker based in London. Her debut novel, The Instrumentalist, sold to Bloomsbury following a seven-way auction in the UK, Simon & Schuster in the US and Harper Collins in Canada. It will publish globally in August 2024, with translation rights so far sold in 20 different languages. The book is inspired by the true story of Anna Maria della Pietà, who was an orphan, musical prodigy and student of Antonio Vivaldi. It has been named an Observer top 10 debut for 2024.

Harriet’s journalism and documentary work is featured in outlets including The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, NPR, The Economist. She produced for BBC News at Six and Ten during the pandemic, and is a Rough Guide to Kenya co-author. She was part of the team that made the BAFTA-award winning 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room.

Originally from London, Harriet worked at the Financial Times before spending several years in Nairobi and then Johannesburg. She grew up playing the flute and piano and singing with her mother, a classically trained musician.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Kiran Millwood Hargrave was born in London in 1990, and now lives in Oxford, the City of Dreaming Spires. As well as writing novels, she is a published poet and playwright. Kiran does her best writing in bed or in pubs, which are two of her favourite places. She studied at Cambridge University and Oxford University, and was about to do a PhD when she decided writing was much more fun (though no less hard!)

Kiran is the author of many books for children and adults including ‘The Girl of Ink and Stars’ and ‘The Dance Tree’.