Mussolini
Pre-Mussolini, most Italians couldn’t understand each other
Towards the end of Dandelions, Thea Lenarduzzi’s imaginative and deeply affecting memoir, the author quotes her grandmother’s remark that there…
Do Russians support Putin’s war?
Everyone is calling the conflict in Ukraine Putin’s war and insisting that it has nothing to do with the Russians…
The joy of French car boot sales
Every Saturday morning Michael rises at four and drives down to the Côte d’Azur to the Magic World car boot…
Dark days in the Balkans: life under Enver Hoxha and beyond
For many in the West, Albania remains as remote and shadowy as the fictional Syldavia of the Tintin comics. The…
Italians believe the coronavirus outbreak shows their superiority
During times of contagion, you begin to understand why fascist salutes were once so popular. The foot-tap is replacing the…
Why do monsters make such good writers?
Did any of you know that most of the 20th-century monsters — Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Ceausescu, Duvalier, and even the…
In defiance of Il Duce
The details of Mussolini’s fascism are perhaps not quite as familiar in this country as they might be. Even quite…
Repo women
Aren’t you getting a little sick of the white cube? I am. I realised how sick last week after blundering…
Umberto Eco really tries our patience
Colonna, the protagonist of Umberto Eco’s latest novel, is the first to admit he is a loser. A middle-aged literary…
The constant inconstancy that made Italians yearn for fascism
Jan Morris on the inconsistency and paradox that has characterised Italian thought over the centuries — and the desperate search for certainty
A passion for men and intrigue
Moura Budberg (1892–1974) had an extraordinary life. She was born in the Poltava region of Ukraine, and as a young…
Be different, be original: that’s what makes a popular politician
I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like being a political leader. I find this difficult because I…
Ezra Pound – the fascist years
‘There are the Alps. What is there to say about them?/ They don’t make sense. Fatal glaciers, crags cranks climb,…
A Hello! magazine history of Venice
When Napoleon Bonaparte captured Venice in 1797, he extinguished what had been the most successful regime in the history of…
Soldier, poet, lover, spy: just the man to translate Proust
Sam Leith is astonished by how much the multi-talented Charles Scott Moncrieff achieved in his short lifetime
The Italians who won the war – against us
Italy entered the second world war in circumstances very similar to those in which it signed up for the first.…
Churchill was as mad as a badger. We should all be thankful
The egotistical Churchill may have viewed the second world war as pure theatre, but that was exactly what was needed at the time, says Sam Leith
When Mussolini came knocking on Hollywood’s door
John Ford was the first of the five famous Hollywood film directors to go to war. He went expecting to…
