Author:David Gilmour
The book that explains the whole extraordinary course of Italian history like no other in English
The Pursuit of Italy traces the whole history of the Italian peninsula in a wonderfully readable style, full of well-chosen stories and observations from personal experience, and peopled by many of the great figures of the Italian past, from Cicero and Virgil to Dante and the Medici, from Cavour and Verdi to the controversial political figures of the twentieth century. The book gives a clear-eyed view of the Risorgimento, the pivotal event in modern Italian history, debunking the influential myths which have grown up around it.
Gilmour shows that the glory of Italy has always lain in its regions, with their distinctive art, civic cultures, identities and cuisine and whose inhabitants identified themselves not as Italians, but as Tuscans and Venetians, Sicilians and Lombards, Neapolitans and Genoese. This is where the strength and culture of Italy still comes from, rather than from misconceived and mishandled concepts of nationalism and unity. This wise and enormously engaging book explains the course of Italian history in a manner and with a coherence which no one with an interest in the country could fail to enjoy.
David Gilmour is one of Britain's most admired and accomplished historical writers and biographers. His previous books include The Last Leopard : A Life of Giuseppe di Lampedusa (winner of the Marsh Biography Award) Curzon (Duff Cooper Prize) and Long Recessional:The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography).
David Gilmour's elegantly written book is full of impressive insights and can be recommended without hesitation as a stimulating, up-to-date and reliable guide to modern Italian history for the general reader. Gilmour's book displays deep knowledge of Italy and is scholarly but never dense.
—— Tony Barber , Financial TimesA highly idiosyncratic meander through the peninsula's history led by a witty guide with an elegant prose style and a mind delightfully furnished with anecdotes and dictums, sensual impressions and conversations. This is a clever and erudite book.
—— Lucy Hughes-Hallett , Sunday TelegraphIt is a piece of great originality and power... It deserves study and emulation
—— Isaiah BerlinFull of rich, fascinating scholarship... What a field he covers
—— Hugh Trevor-RoperBold...new and unexpected
—— Anne Wroe , The EconomistHighly recommended
—— Nicolas Vincent , The TabletIan Mortimer's decision to tell this story in diary format, giving us an almost day-by-day account, would not have suited every historical study, but in this instance was a stroke of genius. The danger would have been excess of extraneous detail, but Mortimer's instinct is superb and what we get instead is the mythical hero-king- immortalised by the Lawrence Olivier film- rendered suddenly human and close.
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The immediacy of the format makes Henry real and flawed; a disturbing and compelling individual.
Mortimer creates a convincing new likeness
—— Nick Rennison , Sunday Timesa three dimensional portrait
—— Telegraphimmerses the reader in the heady drama and the dull routine of a 15th century king's life
—— Ian Pindar , GuardianWhat makes his memoir so absorbing as it swings from clever phrase-making and thoughtful contemporary history to wince-inducing self-analysis, is that he is the first of a generation of politicians to conduct their craft as if observing themselves from an amused an admiring distance - and then to write about it. No recent politician has examines his own motives and psychology quite so candidly
—— John Rentoul , The IndependentIt is the small revelations about the character of Blair that make this book worthwhile
—— Ross Clark , The ExpressIt's a gripping insight into the ex-PM's ten years of power . . . It will take a lot for many people to read his own take on the rise and fall of New Labour, but those that do might be reminded of the charm and vision that swept him to power
—— News of the WorldI have read many a prime ministerial memoir and none of the other authors has been as self-deprecating, as willing to admit mistakes and to tell jokes against themselves
—— Mary Ann Sieghart , The IndependentPaints a candid picture of his friend and rival, Gordon Brown, and of their relationship
—— Patrick Hennessy , The Sunday Telegraph
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