About

I have written and re-written this ABOUT ME page almost a hundred times during the process of bringing this website to life. I have introduced myself in every way I can think of. I have gushed about my love for the Italian Renaissance and confessed that I spent every penny saved during the pandemic on building a library of art and history books. I have brainstormed things I can offer you and tried to convince you to stay with me rather than going elsewhere. I have listed every course I have ever taken and recounted those first moments standing in the presence of art pieces that brought me to my knees. But no matter how I start, I always come to the same conclusion:

I am not what is important.

All I am is a writer inhabiting a 21^st century London space, working as a freelance content writer and falling down rabbit holes. What is important are the very real stories I find within those rabbit holes:

Caterina Sforza’s occupation of the Castel Sant’Angelo, a siege she undertook while seven months pregnant and without a single drop of blood spilt.

Sigismondo Malatesta becoming the only person in history to have been canonised to Hell, the reasons for which are documented mainly by the Pope who hated him.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni, mother of one of the most magnificent Italians in history, but an author and patron in her own right, and the woman to whom Florentines flocked when they needed aid.

Cesare Borgia, infamous for his cruelty with the reasons behind it forgotten to mythology and the propaganda of others.

What’s important is the power of Bianca Maria Visconti. The change in art style of Botticelli and Caravaggio. The writings of Christine de Pizan. The genius of Brunelleschi and Alberti. The celebrity of Artemisia Gentileschi.

What’s important is the history, and the art. I am simply its vehicle.

And so I give you this:

I am Gurpreet. I am a writer. A born-and-bred Londoner. Completely immersed in the Italian Renaissance. And I am your guide through this rabbit hole.