
xxv
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Francesca, for her support and the many
creative ways she devised for shielding me from familial invexendo, simply making this
endeavour possible; and my children, Lisa, David, Nathan and Sara, for those times they
managed to breach that shield. Thanks also to the rest of my family for helping in different
ways, with special gratitude to my aunt for the crucial time she let me spend in her country
house in Trisobbio in the summer of 2013, retir’d from any mortal sight – except of course for
the compulsory Moon Pub evening expeditions with my friends.
I am grateful to the staf ...