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May 8th 2013 Perplexed. Baffled. Disdainful. Pitying. But in the end, not really interested. Those are sort of the words and phrases that came to my mind as I asked bankers, officials, diplomats and journalists during a visit to Delhi what they thought about the European... read more >>> |
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April 23rd 2013 When you are in a hole, stop digging. A wind of change is in the air. Yes, it is a mixture of tired old metaphors, but that was the scolding and entirely justified message on April 22nd from a tired old man to Italy’s political class: face reality, he... read more >>> |
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Welcome
I am an independent writer and consultant on international affairs, write columns for The Times and other papers in Britain and La Stampa in Italy, am chairman of the London Library and am group economic adviser for Fleming Family and Partners. From 1993 until 2006 I was editor of The Economist, the world's leading weekly on international current affairs. My new book Good Italy, Bad Italy, now out in paperback, can be seen below, as can the trailer for the documentary film, Girlfriend in a Coma, which I have co-written with the Italian director Annalisa Piras. More details of the film and our social media campaign to wake Italy up can be found on www.girlfriendinacoma.eu.
Girlfriend in a Coma is now available on DVD from Amazon here.
Or it can be found online:
watch it here
Trailer for the forthcoming documentary film, Girlfriend in a Coma,
which I have made with the Italian director Annalisa Piras.
Girlfriend in a Coma - Official Trailer from Annalisa Piras on Vimeo.
My new book, "Good Italy, Bad Italy", is now out in paperback,
in an edition updated to take account of the disastrously messy outcome of Italy's general election in February. It looks at why Italy is now at the centre
of Europe's economic whirlwind, and at its prospects of emerging from it stronger. The truth is that Italy, which is the euro-zone's third-largest economy
and has the world's third-largest government debts, has been in a political, economic and moral crisis for the past 20 years, as it never really succeeded in achieving agreement over
reforms following its earlier collapse, in 1992. And the story of this book begins in 2001 when I was editor-in-chief of The Economist, and when our
decision to declare on our cover that Silvio Berlusconi was "unfit to lead Italy" caused a huge political and media storm which formed the beginning
of my professional engagement with that country but also of a great personal fascination and affection for it.Read more >
The bittersweet life - FT Review
- Review by John Lloyd
A sympathetic but clear-eyed assessment of what ails and sustains Italy
Early in this lucid and thoughtful book, Bill Emmott cites Dante’s Divine Comedy, with its Hell and Paradise at opposite poles, as a way of understanding the split nature of Italian society: “a very Italian sort of a divide”, he calls it.
Read full review >
A land of virtues and misdeeds - Evening Standard Review
- Review by Ian Thomson
In the 1980s, Italy surpassed Britain to become the fifth industrial power outside the Far East. Italians spoke proudly of il sorpasso — “the overtaking”. During those Thatcher years, however, Italian politics acquired a showbiz tawdriness.
Read full review >
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