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Britain has celebrated the work of genius, artist, inventor and visionary Leonardo da Vinci with an unprecedented exhibition of his art at the National Gallery. Lucille Turner has now also provided us with the first literary work of fiction of Leonardo’s life. In Gioconda, Turner, a former translator and journalist turned university teacher, imagines Leonardo’s life. She throws light on many of the mysteries surrounding him. Is there a lost manuscript? What did the Mona Lisa mean to Leonardo? And who is the woman behind the enigmatic smile?
Turner’s imagining of Leonardo’s life is so astute that it has won praise from Leonardo scholar Martin Kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art at the University of Oxford. Here she discusses her book and Leonardo’s life with Kemp.