A Bold and Dangerous Family

Much has been written about life under fascist rule... But the study of a nation can never be as emotionally compelling as the study of a family... Expertly alternating vivid domestic detail with lucid exposition of the gradual evolution of totalitarianism, Caroline Moorehead allows her readers not only to know, but also to feel, how it was to endure fascist oppression... A prolific author who has always combined seriousness of purpose with a warm, human touch, she is drawn to good-hearted troublemakers... A Bold and Dangerous Family is animated by the evident admiration and affection she feels for her subjects. It feels like the book she was born to write -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Guardian * Italy's resistance to fascism and totalitarian rule was more widespread and well organised than in any other European country... Foremost among the opposition to fascism, there were two portly, bookish, Jewish brothers... Lucid, readable and superbly titled biography of the brothers... The fact that this was a family that cared about words gives Moorehead's book a richness and poise that's rare in a political biography, more novel-like than journalistic... It's hard not to feel regular little shivers of horrified contemporary recognition oat the rise of the populist demagogue Mussolini... At once a political history of pre-second world war Italy, a literary portrait of two brave young men, and a gripping tale of intrigue... I finished it impressed, breathless and enormously moved -- Alex Preston * Observer * The creepy description by the author of the naivety of the good and the seductive powers of the bad touches a nerve. A Bold and Dangerous Family is a haunting reminder of the fragility of liberty and the dangers of complaisance -- Leanda De Lisle * The Times * Caroline Moorehead... tells the story of the Rosselli brothers and their mother Amelia, a playwright, with sensitivity, erudition and balance... Her account of the final years of Carlo's life is moving. The Mussolini regime became more radical, invading Abyssinia, intervening in the Spanish civil war and aligning itself with Hitler... Moorehead's book is a fine tribute to the Rossellis, and particularly to Carlo, who might have turned into one of Italy's greatest 20th-century statesmen -- Tony Barber * Financial Times * Carefully, and with considerable skill, Moorehead juxtaposes the growth into maturity of the intelligent Florentines, Carlo and Nello, with a vivid account of the turbulent conditions that enabled Fascism to take root -- Miranda Seymour * Daily Telegraph *