This is a book which could not have been written without the extremely kind support, encouragement and help of the Rosselli family, who put at my disposal letters, diaries, papers and photographs and who talked to me about the lives of their grandmother and fathers. I thank Silvia, Paola, Aldo, Andrea and David very much indeed, as I do their cousin, Elissa Benaim.
Several historians were also extremely helpful. I should like to thank in particular Mimmo Franzinelli, Mauro Canali, Luca Michelini, Simone Visciola, Zeffiro Ciuffoletti and Stanislao Pugliese. In Lipari, Nino Paino and Giuseppe la Greca provided me with much local background and history; in Ustica, Vito Ailara found me very useful material in the Centro Studi. I thank them both very much. My thanks are also due to Marina Calloni, Isabelle Richet, Marcello Sorgi, Anna Chimenti, Diego Gambetta, Monica Miniati, Lionella Viterbo and Sonia D’Ambra.
Most of the research for this book was done in libraries and archives. I would like to thank Anna Mereu and Daniela Italia of the Fondazione Rosselli in Turin; Valdo Spini and the Fondazione Circolo Fratelli Rosselli in Florence; Simone Neri Serneri and Marta Bonsanti of the Istituto della Resistenza in Toscana; Gian Luca Corradi and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze; Raffaella Barbacini and the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome; Caterina del Vivo and the staff of the Gabinetto, G. P. Vieusseux; the Biblioteca Marucelliana; the Archives Nationales in Paris; the London School of Economics; the University of Reading Library; the National Archives in London; and the British Library.
Finally my thanks go to my travelling companions, Patricia Williams and Kathy van Praag, and to Paul Corner and Anne Chisholm, who read the book in manuscript. As always, I am most grateful to my wonderful editors, Penny Hoare, Poppy Hampson, Jennifer Barth and Pamela Murray, to my copy-editor Eugenie Todd and my proof reader Sarah Barlow, and to my equally wonderful agent, Clare Alexander.
All the Italian translations are mine.