This is a clever, entertaining book, rare in travel literature, it is charged with a sense of purpose.

How does an Italian become Italian? Or an Englishman English, for that matter? Are foreigners born, or made? The author focuses on his own young children in the small village near Verona where he lives, building a picture of the contemporary Italian family at school, at home, at work, and at play.

Is Italy a united country, or a loose affiliation of warring states? Is Italian football a sport, or an ill-disguised protraction of ancient enmities? This book follows the fortunes of Hellas Verona football club, to pay a different kind of visit to some of the world's most beautiful cities.

This is the visceral, thought-provoking and improbably entertaining story of Tim Parks' quest to overcome ill health. Bedevilled by a crippling condition which nobody could explain or relieve, he confronts hard truths about the relationship between the mind and the body, the hectic modern world and his life as a writer.

The Medici are famous as the rulers of Florence at the high point of the Renaissance. Their power is derived from the family bank. This book tells the fascinating, frequently bloody story of the family and the dramatic development and collapse of their bank.

"All Italy is here". (Sunday Times). From the bestselling author of Italian Neighbours, An Italian Education and A Season with Verona In Italian Ways, bestselling writer Tim Parks brings us a fresh portrait of Italy today through a wry account of his train journeys around the country. Whether describing his daily commute from Milan to Verona, his regular trips to Florence and Rome, or his occasional sojourns to Naples and Sicily, Parks uses his thirty years of amusing and maddening experiences on Italian trains to reveal what he calls the 'charmingly irritating dystopian paradise' of Italy....

How do we find calm in our frantic modern world? The author - lifelong sceptic of all things spiritual - finds himself on a Buddhist meditation retreat trying to answer this very question. He recounts his journey from disbelief to something approaching inner peace and tackles one of the great mysteries of our time - how to survive in this age.

'An exceptionally witty and compelling look at the nature of consciousness... Parks is a delight to read' Iain McGilchrist'[It has] wit, humanity and insight... Parks is an entertaining companion throughout' Mail on Sunday

From the bestselling author of Italian Neighbours, An Italian Education and Italian Ways, Italian Life is a particular reckoning with a beloved adopted country.