Gabriele d’Annunzio –poet, dictator and proto-fascist – wasn’t good to his women. He was a serial seducer who wrote to one of his numerous mistresses ‘Your beauty is spiritualised by illness… when you are dead you will reach the supreme light of beauty.’ He ruined women financially. He disgraced and abandoned them and drove them mad. But he chose well. Most of his longer term relationships were with women who were variously rich, grand or brilliantly talented. Here is what four of them said to, or about, him. Read more…
How do I feel about winning the Samuel Johnson Prize? The answer is predictable and embarrassing. In a word, smug. And since there’s nothing more unattractive than smugness I’m not going to go on about it. Let’s imagine instead what my subject, d’Annunzio, would have thought of the award.
We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett last night won the Samuel Johnson Prize 2013 – the UK’s most prestigious award for non-fiction.
Lucy’s biography of Italian artist Gabriele D’Annunzio beat off strong competition to scoop the £20,000 prize, which was awarded at a ceremony at London’s Royal Institute of British Architects. Read more…
We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett last night won the Samuel Johnson Prize 2013 – the UK’s most prestigious award for non-fiction.
