Images and Shadows

Iris Origo

Editions

Review

This wonderful autobiography takes us from Origo's affluent New York / Long Island background to her childhood in Fiesole and the Anglo-American artistic coterie in Florence; then to her marriage to an Italian and, after the war, her life as an established author.  Origo's powerful sense of purpose and intelligence make her life,  already superficially interesting, profoundly so.  She wrote subtly and thoughtfully about the people and places that mattered to her, particularly about her home, La Foce, where she remained throughout the war.  This period of her life is also memorably covered in her diary, War in the Val D'Orcia  (£13.99 paperback).  Both these books are utterly compelling. - review by Johnny de Falbe