Acknowledgements

I owe gratitude to all the people who provided academic advice, guidance and enthusiasm, both formally and informally, throughout my doctoral thesis which forms the basis of this book. I would like to especially acknowledge my examiners, Kathryn Abrams and Hanne Peterson whose perceptive comments helped me to shape the thesis into the book. Equally as important were the comments of the anonymous referees who reviewed the final manuscript and provided useful advice as well as confidence in the project.

I would like to thank ANU Press, especially Don Anton for believing in me and Lorena Kanellopoulous for her efficient driving of the process. Thanks also to the editors Duncan Beard and Dave Gardiner who have much improved this manuscript. Inevitably, the manuscript retains some shortcomings and the responsibility for these is, of course, my own.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank The Australian National University for awarding me a publication subsidy.

A big thank you goes to all of my colleagues at the Herbert & Valmae Freilich Foundation, Penelope Mathew and Tristan Harley who have provided much-needed support and enthusiasm for the project all along. Similarly much thanks to Debjani Ganguly and Thomas Ford from the Humanities Research Centre at The Australian National University. A special thanks to Tom for helping me with the title.

Most importantly, my gratitude and my love go to all my friends (you know who you are) and to my family: my sisters Maria and Vittoria, my brother Luzio, my nephews Hugo, Francesco and Giosué, ma sopratutto un grande abraccio e bacio di gratitudine e amore per la mia cara mamma – Chiara!

Finally my deepest love to my partner David and to our daughters Harriet and Liliana. It is to the three of you that I dedicate this book.