Alain Elkann Interviews

MAKING THE DIG. Gabrielle Tana is producer of The Dig, a Netflix 2021 release in which Ralph Fiennes plays amateur archaeologist Basil Brown

TO WRITE A MASTERWORK. Philip Mansel is a historian of France & the Middle East. His latest book is "King of the World, The Life of Louis XIV".

TO BE A WRITER. René de Ceccatty is a writer, both of numerous novels & also biographies, including those of Pasolini, Moravia & Elsa Morante.

Décors Barbares is the textile company and design studio of Nathalie Farman-Farma, who specializes in fabrics inspired by the decorative history of Iran, Russia, and Central Asia. Prior to that, Nathalie worked in the publishing industry in New York City. She was an associate editor for The New Yorker magazine and a cultural producer for the Charlie Rose Show.

HOW THE WORLD WE LIVE IN WAS CREATED. Historian, novelist and TV presenter Simon Sebag Montefiore has been reading extensively during lockdown. He recommends some delightful books and offers his perspective on Trump's failed putsch.

A MAN WITH A MISSION. The conductor Alvise Casellati is creator of "Opera Italiana is in the Air" whose debut was in Central Park, New York.

THE KILLING CODE. Washington Post reporter Vincent Bevins is the author of "The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder that Shaped Our World". His book asks why the US government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians in 1965, and shows that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.

Dr Virgilio Sacchini is a professor of surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the University of Milan.

THE STORY OF VAUX-LE-VICOMTE. Alexandre de Vogüé and his two brothers own and run the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, one of the greatest Historical Monuments in France.

FERRUCCIO FERRAGAMO: PATERFAMILIAS OF MERIT. The Executive Chairman of the Board of Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. has recently received Italy's highest business award.