I’m Tony Rocca, and here ‘s my favourite photo of Mira, my life-support system. We’ve been partners in life, love and work for as long as we can remember, and now live in the South of France after an extensive period making wine in Tuscany. I know that’s a big jump from Baghdad, but believe me!
Mira, born in Baghdad, spent her early years in India and then grew up in Palestine/Israel and Cyprus before coming to England. In London she had a varied career, working for the US Embassy, Club Mediterrannée, and Thomson Holidays, eventually starting her own successful travel agency.
I was born near Manchester (UK) and spent most of my life working for British newspapers. I wrote for the Daily Mail for 10 years and then another 10 for The Sunday Times before drifting into the freelance wilderness — and then the vineyards.
OTHER ADDRESSES
You can find us elsewhere on the web: at www.tonyrocca.com, and www.memoriesofeden.com, which look something like this:
- On the left, life in Tuscany | On the right, life in old Baghdad
A TALE OF TWO BOOKS
So you see, we didn’t spend the rest of our lives following our chosen career paths, and the websites explain just about all that subsequently happened. Two books are involved: CATCHING FIREFLIES was my first attempt at authorship, telling of the 14 years we spent toiling in Chianti, restoring an old ruin, ruining our bank balance, making wine and eventually hosting up to 700 guests a year in the 12 holiday apartments we created. Long story.
Our second book, MEMORIES OF EDEN, was published in London in February 2008 and is now being republished with a smart new jacket and several new photographs by Northwestern University Press in the USA. It’s the story of the fortunes and fate of the Jewish community in Iraq, and is the result of letters and notes Mira’s late mother sent us over a period of 20+ years after we left the UK to live in Italy and now France.
To promote the book, Mira and I made a tour of the US which culminated in a presentation we gave at the Library of Congress. There’s a journal of that trip here, but please visit the website to read more of this remarkable story and a Baghdad light years removed from the one we know today.
