The Mandolin Lesson

From the UK’s only female professional classical mandolinist, Frances Taylor, comes The Mandolin Lesson – the evocative true story of how she followed her passion against all the odds.

“The four-sided prospectus laid out the requirements for the seven-year course, the scales and repertoire to be studied during each of the years as well as a list of pieces from which a choice could be made for the two diploma exams. I feel a great surge of excitement about the course and I think how fantastic it would be to be able to attend a course specifically designed for my instrument.”

Frances Taylor plays an unusual instrument – the mandolin – and when she gets an unexpected opportunity to study her instrument in its native land, Italy, she feels compelled to do so. The only problem is that as a thirty-something with family and work commitments in England, she has to study part-time, commuting once a month.

Seduced by the charms of the Italian way of life, Frances thinks at first she is finding out about her instrument and music, and then about another culture, but ultimately she is on a journey to find out about herself, an interior journey in which she learns to reconnect with her spirit...

The Mandolin Lesson is a unique, quirky story of commuting to another country for music lessons. Beautifully evocative of an Italy before emails and mobiles, low cost fares and the channel tunnel, it is a journey of the moment that happened ahead of its time.

“My journey could have been set anywhere. My story is not just about music or about Italy – it is about a journey that we are all on, a journey to find out about ourselves and to reconnect with who we are. In this sense, The Mandolin Lesson is not just for mandolin lovers like me – it is for everyone,” says author Frances.