Iris Origo (1902-1988) was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During WWII, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy’s fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. Pushkin Press also publishes her bestselling war diaries, War in Val D’Orcia, her memoir, Images and Shadows, as well as two of her biographies, A Study in Solitude: The Life of Leopardi – Poet, Romantic, Radical and The Last Attachment: The Story of Byron and Teresa Guiccioli.