London Mums’ editor Monica Costa debut book & new workshops to help write and self-publish a book

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Travel with kids

Published on Thursday, 16 December 2021 11:07

Last Updated on 19 September 2022

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Monica Costa’s debut memoir (in Italian) Noi di Lido Adriano – Storie di Romagna is a book about holiday-making on the Adriatic Coast in Italy between the ’60s and today. 

This book idea and project is the brainchild of our Italian-Londoner editor who wrote and self-published it and enjoyed enormous success with the public and raving reviews in the media both in Italy and in the Italian community in Great Britain. Asked by wannabe authors to provide tutorials on how to get a book done from A to Z, Monica will also launch themed workshops in 2022.   

400 books sold in 20 days is no small achievement for a debuting author: Noi di Lido Adriano – Storie di Romagna has clearly been the favourite reading on the beaches of the Ravenna Riviera this summer 2021.

Readers were enthusiastic not only because they found their own memories reflected in Monica’s stories but also because her sentimental style of writing brought out intense emotions, in addition to the laughs for the hilarious characters whose stories continue to be the talk of town on the beaches of Romagna, as well as the summer adventures that remain indelible through the decades. 

This book not only contains very intriguing stories but also 40 pages of unique and historical photographs that have the same effect of a time machine. 

Born in Faenza (Italy), raised in Bologna and a Londoner for the past 23 years, Monica Costa has a special bond with Lido Adriano. A real “love” for the summer in Romagna. As Monica often said during many presentations held last August, “the book was born from the heart and from the exaggerated love for my region”. Two decades spent in London have made her understand the importance of her Romagna roots.  

The idea of writing a book about Lido Adriano and Romagna started from the author’s desire to share the somewhat reckless adventures of her childhood and adolescence with her (now teenage) son Diego (born in London) including anecdotes from toga parties, boat hitch-hiking (an original aquatic ‘hitchhiking’ aimed at passing boats), ‘trips’ on the high seas with the windsurf. 

The generation from the 70s and 80s is defined as ‘free range’ for their freer and unconscious way of life. This is because compared to the big cities, Lido Adriano is a safe place to experience more freedom. Back then helicopter or tiger parenting did not exist. Mums and dads were more relaxed and left their children on the beach alone for hours to encourage their offspring to assess risks by themselves and learn the ‘art of living’.

Noi di Lido Adriano includes hundreds of interviews with people and witnesses of those crazy years, anecdotes and vintage photos. One of the most interesting interviews is with the lifeguard-singer Renato Ricci that reveals the myth of the renowned beach womanisers, famous throughout Italy and abroad. 

Many readers have commented on the Facebook group named after the title that they were often moved to tears and to laughs in equal measure while reading the book.

Noi di Lido Adriano – Storie di Romagna is not just the ideal reading during the summer but especially during the grey winter afternoons, when there is a need to recall or imagine moments of carefree life. The stories of Lido Adriano and its people fascinate and involve as much as those of the protagonists of the most beautiful novels. 

Copies of the first limited edition (in Italian) are available from https://londonmumsmagazine.com. 

To find out more about the forthcoming ‘write and publish your own book’ workshop, send an email to info@londonmumsmagazine.com

Author: Monica Costa

Genre: memoir 

Publisher: Free Range Press (a sister brand by London Mums magazine)

RRP: £16

ISBN: 978-1-3999-0046-1  

Available to buy from here.

Facebook: @NOIDILIDOADRIANO