Alessandro Barbero

All well-known characters have fans, but Italy’s best-loved historian’s call themselves ‘the vassals of Barbero.’ Their charismatic idol specialises in the Middle Ages and military history, focusing on both dissemination and fiction with equal success. He started writing novels in 1995 with Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle (Mondadori), winner of the Strega Prize in 1996, the first in a series of nine books (the latest, published in 2023, is Brick for Stone, Sellerio.). His non-fiction includes bestsellers Caporetto (2017), Dante (2020), and All’arme! All’arme! I priori fanno carne! (2023, all by Laterza). As a collaborator and TV presenter, his in-person and online lessons, or in the form of podcasts, are highly followed everywhere. Latest work translated to German: Karl der Große (Klett-Cotta, 2007).