Description

‘Vividly told, engrossing history’ CLARE MULLEY, author of The Women Who Flew for Hitler

‘Precise, empathic . . . a profoundly satisfying, albeit wistful, read and . . . a worryingly relevant one’ GUARDIAN

A thrilling biography of Benito Mussolini’s favourite daughter, and a heart-stopping account of the unravelling of the Fascist dream in Italy

Edda Mussolini was Benito’s favourite daughter: spoilt, venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal.

She was her father’s confidante during the 20 years of Fascist rule, acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, and playing a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. From her early twenties she was effectively first lady of Italy. She married Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest Foreign Secretary in Italian history, and they were the most celebrated and glamorous couple in elegant, vulgar Roman fascist society.

Their fortunes turned in 1943, when Ciano voted against Mussolini in a plot to bring him down, and his father-in-law did not forgive him. In a dramatic story that takes in hidden diaries, her father’s fall and her husband’s execution, an escape into Switzerland and a period in exile, we come to know a complicated, bold and determined woman who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century’s defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.

Publisher Review

[Moorehead] brilliantly sketches the background of Mussolini and his regime -- R J B Bosworth * LIterary Review * Painstakingly researched and vividly told, this engrossing history turns the spotlight on the deeply conflicted Edda Mussolini, brilliantly balancing the big picture with a wealth of telling detail -- CLARE MULLEY, author of The Women Who Flew for Hitler Caroline Moorehead writes with her characteristic elegance, eye for detail and authoritative knowledge about a monster and a survivor. The story of Mussolini's glamorous daughter is certainly a fascinating one -- MIRANDA SEYMOUR, author of I Used to Live Here Once Wide-ranging and compelling... this book will take a leading place in all studies of the reality of Fascism and all authoritarianism -- RICHARD BOSWORTH, author of Mussolini and the Eclipse of Italian Fascism