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How watching the opening games of the 2022 World Cup with my eight-year-old has triggered memories from my own childhood.  It’s the first World Cup he’ll properly remember and as a football daft kid he deserves to enjoy it.
 Like so many others who are in the process of jettisoning Twitter, I too am beginning to consider my exit strategy and life without the ubiquitous bird.
It’s got something of the feeling of a pub at closing time at the moment - everyone doing their farewells and promising to stay in touch. I suspect, like many things in life, we won’t truly appreciate it until it’s gone. Then again, all good things must come to an end, and maybe this bird has flown? If the truth be told, I’ve been increasingly underwhelmed by my Twitter experience in recent months (my increasingly sluggish android isn’t helping). But I still value the many daily interactions with friends and contacts forged over the last eight years. I joined Twitter in December 2014 looking for a wider audience for my writing. It was a lot harder than I expected to build up a following, but joining a global community, centred around Italian cultural and footballing life, has been an unexpected pleasure. I’m one of the fortunate ones who can say that the negative experiences I’ve had on Twitter have been negligible, far outweighed by the many, many positive interactions, not least welcoming so many friends and followers to Verona. But like many of you I now spend far too much time scrolling. If Twitter’s current precarious plight allows us to reflect on how we might make better use of our time, then that’s no bad thing. Personally, I’d love my reading to return to its pre-social media / pandemic / Smartphone levels, where it was a cherished daily experience. I used to carry a book everywhere with me to fill in those moments waiting in line at the post-office or on the bus or at the park. Now I just carry my phone with me everywhere. For too long Twitter has occupied those quiet moments in between things and I’d like to claim at least some of that time back! Once a week I’ve started to pick up a print copy of the Financial Times, and that seems like a far more sustainable way to absorb the news. I suspect Twitter will stagger on, and me with it! But in the meantime I’m going to shift some of my attention to GoodReads and Notes from Verona. You can follow me on GoodReads here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20491414.Richard_Hough Whatever you do and wherever you go, I hope we stay in touch. You could even write a guest blog here for me on Notes from Verona! Volume I of Verona at War will be published on 1 July 2022. Here's 5 things you need to know!  1. Inspiration Verona at War is a project I've been working on (on and off) for ten years now, in fact ever since I came to Italy in September 2011. I studied history at uni, with a particular focus on the conflicts of the 20th century and when I moved to Italy I was almost immediately struck by how traces of those conflicts seemed to be lurking behind almost every corner. I'd frequently stumble across a monument or a plaque or even just a street name that would spark my curiosity. That's when my research on the subject really began. 2. Life in wartime Verona My original idea was to tell a dozen or so stories set in wartime Verona - stories of resistance and betrayal, atrocities, survival and heroism, with the focus very much on the Second World War. One question kept coming back to me though, which was how did all this happen. The more I thought about it, the further back I went, and I eventually decided that I couldn't tell the story without going back to the First World War, when the seeds of fascism were first sown. So this volume basically tells the story of the rise of fascism in Verona: the key events and characters; the mob violence, the beatings and castor oil punishments; the torchlit processions and astonishing political rallies. I was particularly struck by the relentless violence that followed everything the movement did - and that's before the Second World War even started! 3. Sources In Verona's Biblioteca Civica I discovered an incredible book by Carlo Manzini. It was published in 1938 and it's basically a photo journal of every visit Mussolini ever made to the city. Translating it was a herculean task, but well worth it as it gives such fascinating insight into the spirit of the times and the cult adulation that surrounded Mussolini. Newspaper archives and and political journals were also useful, as well as numerous secondary sources that all had to be laboriously translated from Italian. 4. When can I get a copy? Verona at War will be available on Amazon from 1 July 2022. You can preorder for Kindle now. In the meantime follow me on twitter for all the latest updates or look for updates on my author's page on Amazon. I'd love to get my books into as many local and independent bookshops as possible, so please reach out if you'd like to stock it. I'm also really keen to share the story as widely as possible, through blogs, podcasts and interviews. 5. What's next? Well the next two volumes are already pretty well advanced. Volume II tells the story of the outbreak of war, the occupation and the resistance movement within the city. In Volume III the action really intensifies, as the frontline reaches the city, but the story also really broadens out, with a much wider cast of characters, including the American airforce pilots who bombarded the city and the infantrymen who were first to liberate it. All going well Volume II will be published this time next year and Volume III the following year! I've also got another couple of writing projects on the go, including the story behind a remarkable collection of letters posted home from the Italian front by a lieutenant in the Royal Signals Corp, who also just happens to be my grandfather!  |
AboutRichard Hough writes about history, football, wine, whisky, culture + travel and is currently working on a trilogy about wartime Verona. 
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