In the 16th century when Venice was at its utmost splendour and spreading the art of glassmaking in the world, a young man appeared in the high society destined to change the fate of the Venetian Republic as well as England. It was Giacomo Bellini, a glassmaker who with his family and close friends is the protagonist of Peter Cooke’s new book, The Glass Dagger.

His adventures begin in Venice and then move to London, where Giam is forced into exile.

In writing this book Cooke has done all the necessary researches to offer a plausible picture of the two cities in the1560s, basing his hero on an existing Murano glassmaker, Jacopo Vercelline, who worked in Antwerp before moving to London, becoming the first Glassmaker to the Queen.

A very detailed research of glassmaking techniques and 16th century societies too has been provided by the author, who has produced a story which might well be real. In fact the names of the glass-works are real as well as the main outlines of the story. Yet Cooke has built the rest on his fantasy, joining together some actual facts with a very suggestive prose.

The book is available on amazon.co.uk and petanpublishing.co.uk at £6.99 and the second book of the trilogy, The Crystal Ship, is shortly to be published.