Iris Origo, one of the twentieth century's great diarists, was born in England in 1902. As a child, she moved between England, Ireland, Italy and America, never quite belonging anywhere. It was only when she married an Italian man that she came to rest in one country. Fifteen years later, that country would be at war with her own. With piercing insight, Origo documents the grim absurdities that her adopted Italy underwent as war became more and more unavoidable. Connected to everyone, from the peasants on her estate to the US ambassador, she writes of the turmoil, the danger, and the dreadful bleakness of Italy in 1939-1940. Published for the first time in paperback, A Chill in the Air is the account of the awful inevitability of Italy's stumble into a conflict for which its people were ill prepared. With an introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the award-winning author of The Pike, and an afterword by Katia Lysy, granddaughter of Iris Origo, this is the gripping precursor to Origo's bestselling classic diary War in Val d'Orcia.

"A worthy counterpart to War in Val d'Orcia... Origo analyses the propaganda lies with [a] piercing intelligence" - Guardian

"Here is an honest witness who can be trusted to see things as they are... many marvellously human touches in these pages provide vivid authenticity" - Daily Telegraph

"Origo's diaries, trenchantly and pithily written, are a glory; anyone with an interest in the fate of Europe today should read them" - Spectator

"There's lots of anxiety - she captures it well" - Evening Standard

"Origo's compelling and illuminating journal is a potent blend of sifted news reports, collected rumours and collated views" - Herald

"A Chill in the Air proves Origo a strikingly attentive and perceptive chronicler of ordinary people and everyday life during extraordinary times" - The National

"A sublime wordsmith and an astute and passionate observer of human behavior" - New York Times

"Self-effacing and cultivated... gently percipient" - Kirkus Reviews

"A true cosmopolite of vast energy and stunning intelligence" - New York Times