Vultures probably see blues and violets much as we do. Like cats, vultures also see better out of the sides of their eyes than we can, and their frontal vision is much stronger than ours. In real life few of these birds are strong enough to carry away a child or a full-grown woman. But Restaurant has special powers.
Ravageur Words and Names
Although the Ravageurs are not French, they pretend to be. So I used many archaic French words and French slang in their conversations and vocabulary, mostly taken from Charles M. Marchard’s A Careful Selection of Parisian Slang (1917).
‘Petit Grignon’ was the name of a devil said to consort with a Frenchwoman called Suzanne Gaudry, who was tried for witchcraft in 1652. A wife of a man called Nochin Quinchou was named in the same trial.
Other names have the following meanings (literal translations in brackets):
Frimousse – vicious face
Rouquin – reddish fur
Un Balluchon – (a tramp’s bundle) a shabby creature, his fur all wind-tossed and standing up in spikes
Fildefer – thin
Un Croquemort – an undertaker’s man
Échalas – (a lath) lanky
Un Lèche-bottes – a boot-licker
Ripopette – worthless
Une Caboche – (a hobnail) a blockhead
Une Bourrique – (a she-ass) a stupid girl
Une Bassinoire – (a warming pan) a boring female
Une Bique – (a goat) a silly girl
(If they were truly French, female Ravageurs would of course be called ‘Ravageuses’.)
French expressions
Again, these are taken from old French slang and literal meanings are given in brackets.
Des navets! – (turnips!) No!
Rosbif de rat d’égout! – (roast sewer rat!) You skunk!
C’est chic – Yes, nice
La peine! – So annoying!
Ah! Malheur! – Oh no!
Ah! Zut alors! – Oh, blow it!
Milles bombes! – A thousand bombshells! Hooray!
Hommelette – puny boy
Saints
There are many relics of saints in Venice. The church of Santa Maria del Giglio has a particularly rich store of them. There is a finger of St John the Baptist at Sant’Alvise, a rib of Mary Magdalene and an arm of San Bartolomeo at San Geremia, and an arm of St Ametisto at Santi Apostoli.
Manitoba Gargling Oil
This is an invention, but there were similar products on the market in Talina’s time. They were sometimes advertised using ‘testimonial’ letters from fictitious noblewomen or celebrities, or in almanacs. ‘Merchant’s Gargling Oil’, manufactured from 1833 to the end of the nineteenth century, was typical of this kind of medicine in that it claimed to be able to cure myriads of illnesses. It was originally sold as a medicine for animal ills including ‘foundered feet’, foot rot in sheep, garget in cows, roup in poultry, and mange. But by 1875, it was also being sold to humans for use against chilblains, frostbite, bruises, toothache and many other symptoms. ‘Quack’ medicines of this type were often high in sugar or even alcohol, so they did induce a brief feeling of well-being. But they could also create dangerous addictions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Despite all my years in Venice, I would probably never have explored the quiet, mysterious island of Quintavalle without the guidance of my friend, the historian Lucio Sponza, who first took me there one warm dusk in 2009. Since then, Lucio has taken me on various walking tours of the area, bringing its history to life. And it’s become one of my favourite places in Venice, which is why I set this story there.
Thanks to my editor and publisher Fiona Kennedy, for her inspired suggestions, and to my agent, Sarah Molloy, for her constant kindness, attention and wonderful sense of humour. And for reading early drafts, much gratitude to the Clink Street writers’ group, especially Mavis Gregson and Sarah Salway, who were generous enough to read full drafts. For their close attention to the manuscript, I’d also like to thank Mary Hoffman, Kristina Blagojevitch, Jill Foulston, Meli Pinkerton and Lily Linke. Ornella Tarantola kindly checked my Italian; Cheryl Pasquier cast a clever eye on the French. Sophie Hutton-Squire expertly ironed out the inconsistencies in her copy-edit.
Thanks to Alan Morrison for the name ‘Restaurant’ for the chief vulture. Tigger-Maria is named in honour of the late pet of my nephew, Miko. I’m indebted to Rosemary Wilmot for the story of the cat caught in the door-knocker, and to my Scattered Authors Society friends Kath Langrish, Leslie Wilson, Karen Bush and Nick Green for help on animal colour-blindness, French, underwear and many other important matters.
Copyright
AN ORION CHILDREN’S EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2012
by Orion Children’s Books.
This eBook first published in 2012
by Orion Children’s Books.
Copyright © Michelle Lovric 2012
The right of Michelle Lovric to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, designs and patents act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4440 0367 3
Orion Children’s Books
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper St Martin’s Lane
London WC2H 9EA
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www.orionbooks.co.uk
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