John Foot is the author of seven books, including The Archipelago: Italy since 1945; Calcio: A History of Italian Football; Pedalare, Pedalare. A History of Italian Cycling; Italy's Divided Memory and The Man who Closed the Asylums. Five of his books have been translated into Italian. He has written for the Guardian, Independent on Sunday, London Review of Books and the TLS. He has appeared in a number of TV documentaries and on national and local radio. He is Professor of Modern Italian History at the University of Bristol and Director of an 8-university Doctoral Consortium funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Committee. He lives in Bristol with his partner and daughter. In the 1990s and 2000s, he lived in the city of Milan. He is a regular contributor to the Italian magazine Internazionale.