Earlier this week, I had a launch at UCL for my book Emigrant Soldiers. I was moved and grateful to see so many friends and colleagues show up to support me. Grazie a tutti. And to Heather Jones who did a wonderful job of contextualising the book (and driving sales!)

In dispatches from insane prices in central London, please say hello to the £12.75 sourdough loaf.

Very glad to have managed to see Thessaloniki in the sunshine after two days of rain! Interesting mix of Byzantine architecture, Roman ruins and container ships heading into the port! It’s been a great location for the First World War Studies conference with wonderful hospitality.

Very pleased to be officially beginning my Leverhulme Research Fellowship year at the International First World War Studies conference in (a rainy) Thessaloniki. Three days of talk about war at sea!

I’m en route to Oxford to present one of the keynotes at this conference on return migration to Italy. Alice Gussoni & Fanny Clemente have curated an excellent programme full of papers I’m excited to hear. It promises to be a stimulating couple of days! migration.web.ox.ac.uk/event/return...

I’ve just been told that my book has its own little display in the window of the CUP bookshop in Cambridge! Not something i ever thought would happen! @universitypress.cambridge.org

Very pleased to see this article appear in the July issue of @historytoday.com
The article explores the clash between expectation and reality for Italy's emigrant soldiers when they returned to fight in the First World War. Pick up a copy of History Today to find out more!

Thank you! And thank you for sharing your family’s history and documents with me. Americo’s certificate of merit appears on p. 158!

It exists! I finally got my unboxing moment today! A short article to introduce my book Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War. Available for pre-order now.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/emigra...

Amidst piles of marking, it was a pleasure yesterday and today to attend a workshop at Senate House on approaches to uncovering the afterlife of the Italian empire, featuring academics, artists, writers and curators. Lots of rich discussions and best practice examples.

Unfortunately, I gorgot to get a group photo so this will have to suffice as a photographic souvenir!

It's been 9 years in the making so I'm very excited that my book, Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War, now has a cover, a webpage and a publication date (June for online, July for print!). 🥳 A steal at only £35! www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

A little travel tip from me about an anti-mafia walking tour in Palermo - Addiopizzo do a great job in supporting businesses who refuse to pay the 'pizzo' - protection money extorted by the mafia. www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Aside from knowing that the Disney film Moana needed to be retitled in Italy because Moana was the name of a v famous porn actress in the ‘90s, I didn’t know much about the history of porn in Italy so I really enjoyed the film Diva Futura the BFI as part of the Cinema Made in Italy Festival.

Really enjoyed seeing the new Futurism to Concrete Poetry show at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art yesterday. I’ve written so much about these World War 1 visual poems, it was a pleasure to see them displayed and widely enjoyed!

I mean, I suppose Libero wasn’t entirely wrong! @mm-repubblica-bot.bsky.social

I always think nothing can surprise me anymore about the attitude of some parts of Italian society towards Fascism… and then Libero decides to make Mussolini the “man of the year” for 2024. At least it’s a good source for my teaching!

And the copy-editing begins!

If it's on Publishers Marketplace it must be true! Very excited to announce the details of my first trade book, a global history of Italian emigration from Marco Polo to today. Thanks to my amazing agent Anna Power @ Johnson & Alcock.
for making it happen! Now I just have to write the thing!