Jasper Ridley - Mussolini: A Biography

MUSSOLINI

By the same author

NICHOLAS RIDLEY

THOMAS CRANMER

JOHN KNOX

LORD PALMERSTON

MARY TUDOR

GARIBALDI

THE ROUNDHEADS

NAPOLEON III AND EUGNIE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

THE STATESMAN AND THE FANATIC

HENRY VIII

ELIZABETH I

THE TUDOR AGE

THE LOVE LETTERS OF HENRY VIII

MAXIMILIAN AND JUREZ

TITO

HISTORY OF THE CARPENTERS COMPANY

First Cooper Square Press edition 2000

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

TO CHRISTOPHER SMALL

between pages 208 and 209

Mussolini aged fourteen (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Mussolini in Switzerland in 1904 (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Mussolini when editor of the Socialist newspaper Avanti! in 1912 (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Rachele Mussolini (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Angelica Balabanoff (Erinnerungen und Erlebnisse, by Angelica Balabanoff, Berlin 1927)

Margherita Sarfatti (Arnoldo Mondadori editore, Milan)

Leda Rafanelli (Arnoldo Mondadori editore, Milan) (La Fenice editore, Florence )

Mussolini as a soldier during the First World War (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Mussolini walking on crutches after being wounded on the Isonzo front in 1917 (Hulton-Deutsch Collection)

Mussolini, his wife Rachele, and their daughter Edda (Arnoldo Mondadori editore, Milan)

Il Popolo dItalia of 29 October 1922, with the proclamation of the Quadrumvirs during the March on Rome (Mrs Biancamaria Parkin)

Mussolini welcoming King George V on the Kings arrival in Rome on 10 May 1923 (The Royal Photograph Collection, by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen)

Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri at the signature of the Concordat on 11 February 1929 (Arnoldo Mondadori editore, Milan)

Mussolini playing the violin (Hulton-Deutsch Collection)

Mussolini and Italo Balbo (Arnoldo Mondadori editore, Milan)

Mussolini and Pierre Laval in Rome, January 1935 (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Mussolini throwing a new type of gas bomb during a demonstration in Rome in May 1935 (Hulton-Deutsch Collection)

Mussolinis house at Rocca delle Caminate (Arnoldo Mondadori editore, Milan)

Claretta Petacci (The Sunday Times)

Mussolini talking to Neville Chamberlain at Munich on 30 September 1938 (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Mussolini and Hitler in Hitlers plane flying over German-occupied Russia on 28 August 1941 (La Fenice editore, Florence)

Mussolini and General Messe near Uman, 400 miles inside the Soviet Union, on 28 August 1941 (La Fenice editore, Florence)

The Villa Feltrinelli at Gargnano on Lake Garda, Mussolinis residence when Chief of the Italian Social Republic, 19435 (The Times)

The corpses of Mussolini and Claretta Petacci hanging from their feet in the Piazzale Loreto in Milan on 29 April 1945 (Hulton-Deutsch Collection)

I wish to thank those people who have helped me with this book, none of whom, of course, have any responsibility for the statements which I have made or the opinions which I have expressed;

Mrs Biancamaria Parkin for reading my typescript, for her information about her youth in Fascist Italy, and for all the other help she has given me;

Anita Garibaldi for information about her father Ezios relationship with Mussolini, for placing me in contact with valuable informants, and for her constant assistance;

Signora Linda Magagnoli for her reminiscences of the Giornata da Fede on 18 December 1935, the Fascist Youth Movement, and her life in wartime Rome;

The Onorevole Giancarlo Matteotti for his information about the murder of his father in 1924 as he saw it at the age of six;

Romano Mussolini for information about his childhood recollections of his father and their life at Gargnano under the Italian Social Republic in 19445;

Signor Pancrazi for information about his experiences as a member of the Fascist Youth and as a soldier in the Italian army in the Second World War;

Professor Salvatore Spinello for his information about his experiences in the weeks before the overthrow of Mussolini in 1943 and on other matters;

Isabel Quigly for her advice on the more subtle problems of translation;

The Lady Soames, D.B.E., for permission to read and to quote extracts from private correspondence between her father and mother, Winston and Clementine Churchill, which are not yet available to the public;

Ann Hoffmann for her constant help with problems of research;

My wife Vera Ridley for her most useful advice on my typescript;

The Onorevole Giulio Caradonna, Susan Chitty, Lenore Denny, Dr Bill Felton, Alan Hooton, Patricia Neild, the Onorevole Presidente Luigi Preti, Ingrid Price-Gschlossl, my daughter Barbara Ridley, Inge Roberts, Ambasciatore Marchese Rossi Longhi, Denise Sells, Dr Michael Smith and Nicole Swatek for assistance with research, for gifts or loans of books, for hospitality, and other assistance;

Lieselotte Clark and my son John Ridley for assistance with the proofreading;

The staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Rome, the British Library, the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, the Churchill Archives at Churchill College, Cambridge, the Kent County Library in Tunbridge Wells, the London Library, the Public Record Office, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)

The passages from the letters of Clementine and Sir Winston Churchill quoted on Page 179 are reproduced with permission of the Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College in the University of Cambridge, Copyright The Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College in the University of Cambridge.

The passage from Sir Winston Churchills speech quoted on Page 230 is reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London, on behalf of C Sc T Publications, Copyright C & T Publications.