Vivian Linacre

The Several Lives of Alberto Bioletti Vivian Linacre

This is an extraordinary story of the campaigns of one soldier in four continents. We start in what is now Italy and travel to Egypt with Napoleon, we find ourselves in Syria, we see capture in the Caribbean, an imprisonment in Devon, England where Alberto meets his future wife, is paroled and travels to Paris. Then the invasion of Russia where Alberto is captured again, but manages to escape, walks all the way back to Paris, and makes his way to England where he and his wife finally settle. Alberto lived for many more years, told his tale to his grandson, who told his granddaughter, the author's mother, and is told to you by his descendant, Vivian Linacre. Meanwhile, another of Alberto's descendants becomes the barber in Penny Lane, Liverpool who features in the Beatle's song of the same name.