Anita

Anita Chapman enjoyed writing stories from a young age, and won a local writing competition when she was nine years old. Encouraged by this, she typed up a series of stories about a mouse on her mum’s typewriter and sent them to Ladybird. She received a polite rejection letter, her first.

Many of Anita’s summers growing up were spent with her family driving to Italy, and she went on to study French and Italian at university. As part of her degree, Anita lived in Siena for several months where she studied and au paired, and she spent a lot of time travelling around Italy in her twenties.

Anita likes to read journals and diaries from the past, and one of her favourite pastimes is visiting art galleries and country houses. Her first published novel, The Venice Secret is inspired by her mother taking her to see the Canalettos at The National Gallery in London as a child.

From 2015 until 2025, Anita worked as a social media manager, training authors on social media, and helping to promote their books. She’s run several courses in London and York, and has worked as a tutor at Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College.

Anita’s debut novel, The Venice Secret, a dual timeline about the discovery of a hidden painting in a loft was published in March 2023. It spent six weeks in the UK Kindle Top 100, reaching number 38. It’s available as an ebook, including Kindle Unlimited and as a paperback. Since then The Florence Letter, The Tuscan Diary, and The Italian Vineyard have been published.The House in the Tuscan Hills will be published in April 2026.