A Chill in the Air
An Italian War Diary 1939-1940
Published on 26. October 2017
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-1-78227-355-4 (ISBN)
Description
A gripping unpublished diary from the bestselling diarist and biographer, with an introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Iris Origo, one of the twentieth century's great diarists, was born in England in 1902. As a child, she moved between England, Ireland, Italy and America, never quite belonging anywhere. It was only when she married an Italian man that she came to rest in one country. Fifteen years later, that country would be at war with her own.
With piercing insight, Origo documents the grim absurdities that her adopted Italy underwent as war became more and more unavoidable. Connected to everyone, from the peasants on her estate to the US ambassador, she writes of the turmoil, the danger, and the dreadful bleakness of Italy in 1939-1940.
Published for the first time, A Chill in the Air is the account of the awful inevitability of Italy's stumble into a conflict for which its people were ill prepared. With an introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the award-winning author of The Pike, and an afterword by Katia Lysy, granddaughter of Iris Origo, this is the gripping precursor to Origo's bestselling classic diary War in Val d'Orcia.
Iris Origo, one of the twentieth century's great diarists, was born in England in 1902. As a child, she moved between England, Ireland, Italy and America, never quite belonging anywhere. It was only when she married an Italian man that she came to rest in one country. Fifteen years later, that country would be at war with her own.
With piercing insight, Origo documents the grim absurdities that her adopted Italy underwent as war became more and more unavoidable. Connected to everyone, from the peasants on her estate to the US ambassador, she writes of the turmoil, the danger, and the dreadful bleakness of Italy in 1939-1940.
Published for the first time, A Chill in the Air is the account of the awful inevitability of Italy's stumble into a conflict for which its people were ill prepared. With an introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the award-winning author of The Pike, and an afterword by Katia Lysy, granddaughter of Iris Origo, this is the gripping precursor to Origo's bestselling classic diary War in Val d'Orcia.
Reviews / Votes
Her clear-eyed account reads with truly alarming timeliness -- Marina Warner * Observer, Books of the Year 2017 * A worthy counterpart to War in Val d'Orcia... Origo analyses the propaganda lies with [a] piercing intelligence -- Antony Beevor * Guardian * Here is an honest witness who can be trusted to see things as they are... many marvellously human touches in these pages provide vivid authenticity * Daily Telegraph * An unflinching chronicle of both trauma and survival * Observer * Origo's diaries, trenchantly and pithily written, are a glory; anyone with an interest in the fate of Europe today should read them * Spectator * Origo's compelling and illuminating journal is a potent blend of sifted news reports, collected rumours and collated views * Herald * Keenly observed... In this elegant, eloquent account of a period when death and destruction were imminent, the sense of hope is never quite extinguished * New Statesman * Origo was a remarkable writer, with a clear, engaging style, a mind steeped in history and scholarship, but alive always to the nuances and subtleties of human relationships * TLS * The fascination of this book is that it gives a unique insight into the hopes and fears of Italian society during a traumatic period where there were few articulate outsiders * Country Life * A Chill in the Air proves Origo a strikingly attentive and perceptive chronicler of ordinary people and everyday life during extraordinary times * The National * A sublime wordsmith and an astute and passionate observer of human behavior * New York Times * Self-effacing and cultivated... gently percipient * Kirkus Reviews * A true cosmopolite of vast energy and stunning intelligence * New York Times * As persuasively reliable as it is unquestionably fascinating. This diary is so good... read it, and return to War in Val d'Orcia -- Allan Massie * Standpoint * It is well written, spare and unadorned, and it is pretty frank... perceptive, nuanced... striking * Shiny New Books * Origo is invaluable in her skills of showcasing documentary evidence... no reader will fail to be captivated and engrossed by the irreducibility of Origo's voice, by her larger-than-life awareness of a place and purpose in history * Bookanista *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78227-355-4 (9781782273554)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
10/2018
Pushkin Press
€33.61
Article not available at the moment
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2017
Pushkin Press
€9.59
Available for download
Persons
Iris Origo (1902-1988) was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During WWII, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy's fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. Pushkin Press also publishes her bestselling war diaries, War in Val D'Orcia, her memoir, Images and Shadows, as well as two of her biographies, A Study in Solitude: The Life of Leopardi - Poet, Romantic, Radical and The Last Attachment: The Story of Byron and Teresa Guiccioli.