Gaia Servadio

Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio (13 September 1938 – 20 August 2021) was an Italian writer. Early life and career Servadio was born in Padua, the daughter of industrial chemist Luxardo Servadio and wife Bianca Prinzi. Her father was Jewish and her mother was Sicilian and Catholic. She received a bachelor's degree from London's Camberwell School of Art. 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". 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). In 1968, they were living in "23 rooms or so" of one wing of Aberuchill Castle, Perthshire, Scotland.