Iris Origo (1902–1988) was a British-born biographer and
writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the
improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she
purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second
World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many
escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of
Italy’s fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. She is the
author of Images and Shadows; A Chill in the Air: An Italian War
Diary,
1939–1940; Leopardi: A Study in Solitude; and The Merchant of
Prato, among others.
Virginia Nicholson is a social historian and writer known
for her works on women’s history. She is the the author of
five books, including Among the Bohemians: Experiments in
Living 1900–1939, and most recently, Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes:
The Story of Women in the 1950s.
"Origo’s diary is a compelling story of heroism, compassion, and—in
the author’s words—‘the most primitive traditions of ungrudging
hospitality, uncalculating brotherhood . . . the shared, simple
acts of everyday life."
—Vic Sussman, The Washington Post
"[War in Val d’Orcia] is a remarkably moving document that, like
the best of the elemental war stories, eventually becomes a
statement about the unplanned nature and folly of war."
—Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times
"A welcome rediscovery, evoking a unique, strange moment in
civilian/soldier wartime-history with spare, vital immediacy."
—Kirkus Reviews
"A remarkable war diary."
—Daily Telegraph
"It is jolting to recall, through Origo’s sober and self-effacing
prose, the atrocious conditions of the summer of 1944."
—Financial Times
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