© 2025 - Anglo Italian Family History Society
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This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a selection of general texts covering major topics. Some books are out of print but can often be requested through libraries and academic institutions or purchased on Amazon, Google Books and Abe Books.
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Barratt, Nick | Who do you think you are? Encyclopaedia of Genealogy | (Harper, 2012) |
| Bevan, Amanda | Tracing your ancestors in the Public Record Office | (Public Record Office, 2002) |
| Cole, Trafford R, |
Italian Genealogical Records: How to Use Italian Civil, Ecclesiastical & Other Records in Family History Research |
(Ancestry Inc., 1995) |
| Evinson, Denis | Catholic Churches of London | (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 1998) |
| Gandy, Michael | Catholic family history: a bibliography of local sources | (Michael Gandy, 1996) |
| Gandy, Michael | Catholic family history: a bibliography for Wales | (Michael Gandy, 1996) |
| Gandy, Michael, | Catholic Parishes in England, Wales and Scotland - an Atlas | (Michael Gandy, 1993) |
| Gandy, Michael | Basic Facts About Tracing Your Catholic Ancestry in England | (Federation of Family History Societies, 2002) |
| Hey, David, ed. | The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History, | (Oxford University Press, 1996) |
| Kelly, B W | Historical notes on English Catholic missions (Classic Reprint) | (Forgotten Books, 2018) |
|
Kershaw, Roger & Mark Pearsall |
Immigrants and Aliens. A guide to sources on UK immigration and citizenship |
(Public Record Office Publications, 2004) |
| Payne, Mathew, | Nonconformist, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Burial Ground Registers | (Guildhall Library Publications, 2002) |
| Pols, Robert | Dating Twentieth Century Photographs | (Federation of Family History Societies, 2005) |
| Raymond, Stuart A |
Tracing Your Roman Catholic Ancestors: A Guide for Family and Local Historians |
(Public Record Office, 2001) |
|
Smith, Kelvin, C T Watts & M J Watts |
Records of Merchant Shipping and Seamen | (Richmond, Surrey PRO, 1998) |
|
Stanca, Luca Matteo, tr. Michael Coffey |
St Peter’s Italian Church in London: La Chiesa Di San Pietro A Londra | (St Peter’s Church, Clerkenwell, 2001) |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Allen, Tudor | Little Italy. The Story of London’s Italian Quarter | (London: Camden Local Studies, 2008) |
| Audrey, Suzanne |
Multiculturalism in Practice (Interdisciplinary Research Series in Ethnic, Gender & Class Relations) |
(Ashgate Publishing, 2000) |
| Audrey, Suzanne | Multiculturalism in Practice: Irish, Jewish, Italian and Pakistani Migration to Scotland | (Ashgate Publishing, 2000) |
| Banfield, Edwin | The Italian influence on English barometers from 1780 | (Wiltshire: Baros Books, 1993) |
| Banfield, Edwin | Barometer Makers and Retailers 1660 - 1900 | (Wiltshire: Baros Books, 1991) |
|
Barber, Peter and Peter Jacomelli |
Continental Taste. Ticinese Emigrants and their Café-Restaurants in Britain 1847-1987, | (Camden History Society, 1997) |
| Bernabei, Alfio | Esuli ed emigrati Italiani nel Regno Unito 1920-1940 | (Milano Mursia Editore, 1997) |
| Besagni, Olive | A Better Life: a history of London's Italian immigrant families | (Camden History Society, 2011) |
| Bottignolo, Bruno | Without a Bell Tower: A Study of the Italian Immigrants in South-West England | (Centro Studi Emigrazione, 1985) |
| Chezzi, Bruna | Italians in Wales and Their Cultural Representations | (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015) |
| Chistolini, S | Donne Italo-Scozzesi: Tradizione e Cambiamento | (Franco Angeli Edizioni, 2011) |
| Colpi, Terri | The Italian Factor: The Italian Community in Great Britain | (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1991) |
| Colpi, Terri | Italians Forward | (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1991) |
| Colpi, Terri | Italians’ Count in Scotland. The 1933 Census. Recording History. | (London: The St James Press, 2015) |
| Cooke, Terry | Little Italy. A History of Liverpool's Italian Community | (Liverpool: The Bluecoat Press, 2002) |
|
Denford, Steven & David Hellings |
Streets of Old Holborn | (Camden History Society, 1999) |
| Dietz, Angelika |
Dimensions of Belonging and Migrants by Choice. Contemporary Movements between Italy and Northern Ireland |
(Münster, Waxmann, 2011) |
| Di Felice, Pau | Italians in Manchester 1891-1939: Settlement and Occupation |
Journal of the British Association for Local History. Vol.30/2, pp.88-104 (available online) |
| Dorris, George E. | Paolo Rolli & the Italian Circle in London, 1715-1740 |
(Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, 1967. Ebook 2014) |
|
Filby, P. William & Nemeh, Katherine H |
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index | (Gale Group, 2001) |
| Forte, Alessandro | La Londra degli Italiani. Dai Penny Ice alla City | (Roma, Aliberti, 2012) |
| Fortier, Anne-Marie | Migrant belongings. memory, space and identity | (Oxford: Berg, 2000) |
| Franchi, Nicoletta |
La Via della Scozia. L’Emigrazione Barghigiana e Lucchese a Glasgow tra Ottocento e Novecento |
(Lucca: Fondazione Paolo Cresci, 2012) |
| Fucilla, Joseph | Our Italian Surnames |
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company 2009) |
| Gabaccia, Donna R | Italy's Many Diasporas: Elites, Exiles and Workers of the World | (London and New York: Routledge, 2005) |
| (Global Diasporas) | ||
| Gabaccia, Donna R & | Women, Gender, and Transnational Lives:Italian workers of the World | (London and New York: Routledge, 2008) |
| Franca Iacovetta (eds) | (Studies in Gender and History) | |
| Girelli, Elisabetta | Beauty and the Beast. Italianness in British Cinema | (Bristol: Intellect Press, 2009) |
| Holmes, Colin | John Bull's Island: Immigration and British Society, 1871-1971 | (Palgrave Macmillan, 1988) |
|
Hopwood, Doreen and Margaret Dilloway |
Bella Brum. A History of Birmingham’s Italian Community | (Birmingham Library Services) |
| Hughes, Colin | Lime, Lemon and Sarsaparilla: the Italian Community in South Wales | (Bridgend: Seren Books, 1991) |
| Repub. Trowbridge: Cornwell Press, 2003) | ||
| Longmore, Leonella | From Alien to Italo-Scot | (Inverness: [no. pub], 2016) |
|
Mayhew, Henry, ed. Peter Quennell |
London Labour and the London Poor |
(Spring Books, 1851, Repub, Ware: Wordsworth Editions) |
| Medaglia, Azadeh | Patriarchal Structures and Ethnicity in the Italian Community in Britain | (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2001) |
| Panayi, Panikos | Migrant City: a new history of London | (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2020) |
| Rea, Anthony | Manchester’s Little Italy: Memories of the Italian Colony of Ancoats | (Neil Richardson, 1988) |
| Ruddock, Alwyn | Italian Merchants and Shipping in Southampton, 1270-1600 | (Southampton: University College, 1951) |
| Shankland, Hugh | Out of Italy. The Story of Italians in North East England | (Kibworth Beauchamp: Troubador Publishing, 2014) |
| Spiro, Margherita | Migrant Memories. Cultural History, Cinema and the Italian Post-War Diaspora in Britain | (Bern: Peter Lang, 2013) |
| Sponza, Lucio' | 'Italian Immigrants in Britain. Perceptions and Self-Perceptions' in Histories and Memories. | (London: Tauris Academic Studies 2006) |
| Migrants and their History in Britain, ed. by Kathy Burrell and Panikos Panayi | pp. 57-74 | |
| Sponza, Lucio | Italian Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Realities and Images | (Leicester University Press, 1988) |
| Sponza, Lucio | Italian Immigrants in 19th Century Britain. Realities and Images. | Leicester University Press, 1988 |
| Sponza, Lucio & Tosi, A | A Century of Italian Immigration to Britain, Five Essays" | Reading University Press: 1991 |
| Stanca, Luca Matteo | 'La Chiesa di San Pietro a Londra. St Peter's Italian Church in London | (Roma: Salemi Pro Editoriale, 2001) |
| (trans. Michael Coffey) | ||
| Tanner, Christine P. | Carlo’s Ice Cream Parlour and Tea Rooms: Generational History of an Anglo-Italian Family | (CPT Oral History, 2011) |
| Terry Cooke | Little Italy. A History of Liverpool’s Italian Community | (Liverpool: The Bluecoat Press, 2002) |
| Valgimigili, A | La Colonia Italiana di Manchester,1932 | (Firenze: E. Ariani, 1932) |
| Winder, Robert | Bloody Foreigners, The Story of Immigration to Britain, | (London: Abacus, 2013) |
| Wise, Sarah | The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London | (London: Jonathan Cape, 2004) |
| Woolf, Stuart | The Poor in Western Europe in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries | (London: Methuen, 1986. Repub. |
| London: Routledge 2018) | ||
| Zucchi, John E | Little Slaves of the Harp – Italian Child Street Musicians in 19th | (Liverpool University Press, 1999) |
| century Paris, London and New York |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Baldoli, Claudia | Exporting Fascism. Italian Fascists and Britain’s Italians in the 1930s. | (Oxford: Berg, 2003) |
| Baldoli, Claudia and | Forgotten Blitzes: France and Italy Under Allied Air Attack, 1940-1945 | (London: New York, Continuum, 2012) |
| Andrew Knapp | ||
| Balestracci, Maria Serena | Arandora Star. Dall’Oblio alla Memoria: From Oblivion to Memory | (Parma: Monte Università Parma, 2008) |
| Behan, Tom | The Italian Resistance: Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies | (London: Pluto Press, 2015) |
| Cacciatore, Nicola | Italian Partisans and British Forces in the Second World War. Working with the Enemy | (Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023) |
| Capella, Peter (ed) | The Arandora Star Tragedy. 75 Years On – London’s Italian Community Remembers | (London: [n.pub.], 2015 |
| Chappell, Connery | Island of Barbed Wire: The Remarkable Story of World War Two Internment on the Isle of Man | (London: Corgi Books, 1984) |
| Colpi, Terri | ‘The Impact of the Second World War on the British Italian Community’ in The Internment of Aliens | (London: Frank Kass, 1993) pp. 167-187 |
| in Twentieth Century Britain, ed. by David Ceserani and Tony Kushner | ||
| Foot, John | Italy's Divided Memory | (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) |
| Gillman, Peter and Leni Gillman | Collar the Lot! How Britian Interned its Wartime Refugees | (London: Quartet Books, 1980) |
| Gobetti, Ada | Partisan Diary: A Woman's Life in the Italian Resistance | (Oxford University Press, 2014) |
| Hamilton, Hope | Sacrifice On The Steppe: The Italian Alpine Corps in the Stalingrad Campaign, 1942-1943 | (Philadelphia: Casemate: 2011) |
| Jackson, Sophie | Churchill's Unexpected Guests: Prisoners of War in Britain in World War II | (Cheltenham: The History Press, 2010) |
| Koch, Eric | Deemed Suspect, A Wartime Blunder | (London: Methuen, 1980) |
| Lewis, Norman | Naples '44: An Intelligence Officer in the Italian Labyrinth | (London: Methuen, 1980) |
| Moorehead, Caroline | A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Itraly from Fascism (The Resistance Quartet) | (London: Vintage, 2020) |
| Moorehead, Caroline | A Bold and Dangerous Family : One Family's Fight against Italian Fascism | (London: Vintage, 2018) |
| Morris, Eric | Circles of Hell: the War in italy, 1943-1945 | (London: Hutchinson, 1993) |
| Newby, Eric | Love and War in the Apennines | (London: William Collins, 2010) |
| Paolini, Stefano | Missing Presumed Drowned. The True Story of the Internment of Italians Resident in Britain | (London: [n.pub.], 2015) |
| during the Second World War | ||
| Paris, Philip | The Italian Chapel [Orkney] | (Edinburgh: Black and White Publishing, 2009) |
| Paris, Philip | Orkney's Italian Chapel: The True Story of an Icon | (Black and White Publishing, 2014) |
| Pelosi, Paulette | Arandora Star Memorial Fund in Wales 1940-2010 | (Llanelli: Mike Clarke Printing, 2010) |
| Pieri, Joe | Isle of the Displaced – An Italian Scots memoirs of Internment | (Manchester: Neil Wilson Publishing, 1997) |
| Pistol, Rachel | Internment During the Second World War: a Comparative Study of the UK and USA | (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) |
| Sponza, Lucio | Divided Loyalties. Italians in Britain during the Second World War | (Bern: Peter Lang, 2000) |
| Sponza, Lucio | ‘The British Government and the Internment of Italians’ in The Internment of Aliens in Twentieth Century Britain, | (London: Frank Kass, 1993) |
| and Tony Kushner | ed. by David Cesarani and Tony Kushner (pp.125-144) | |
| Stent, Robert | A Bespattered Page? The Internment of His Majesty’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens | (London: Andre Deutsch) |
| Stille, Alexander | Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism | (London: Jonathan Cape) |
| Tudor, Malcolm | Among the Italian Partisans: the Allied Contribution to the Reisistance | (Oxford: Blackwells, 2016) |
| Ugolini, Wendy | Experiencing War as the ‘enemy Other’: Italian Scottish Experience in World War II, | (Manchester University Press: 2011) |
| (Cultural History of Modern War) | ||
| Voss-Del Mar, Nella | The Italian in the ATS | (Luton: Arthur H. Stockwell, 2001) |
| Webster, Wendy | Mixing it: diversity in World War Two Britain | (Oxford: United Kingdom, 2018) |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Besagni, Olive |
A Better Life. A History of London's Italian Immigrant Families in Clerkenwell's Little Italy in the 19th and 20th Centuries |
(London: Camden History Society, 2011) |
| Contini, Mary | Dear Olivia. An Italian Journey of Love and Courage | (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2006) |
| Contini, Mary | Dear Francesca, An Italian Journey of Recipes Recounted with Love | (Ebury Press, 2003) |
| Coraggioso Cogliardo [Eugenio D’Agostino] | Wandering Minstrel and Reports of Other Rondini | (Edinburgh, Neilson Book Services: 2018) |
| Corelli, Maria | In Love and War: a Letter to My Parents | (Short Books: 2001) |
| Emanuelli, Hector | A Sense of Belonging. From the Rhonda to the Potteries. Memories of a Welsh Italian Englishman | (Lagenfield: Six Towns Books, 2010) |
| Fisher, Colin | Pieroni's Fountain: An Italian Immigrant's Search for Respectability in Victorian Bath | (Akeman Press, 2014) |
| Fontanella, Cecilia & Arleene Piercy | Crossing the Divide | (Lightening Source UK Ltd, 2007) |
| Forte, Charles | Forte: the autobiography of Charles Forte | (London: Pan Books, 1987) |
| Pieri, Joe | River of Memory. Memoirs of a Scots-Italian | (Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 2006) |
| Kerekes, David | Mezzogiorno. Life. Death. Southern Italy | (Headpress, 2012) |
| Kinross, Felicity | Coffee and Ices: the story of Carlo Gatti in London | (London: Canal Museum, 2020 [2nd ed]) |
| Newby, Eric | A Small Place in Italy | |
| Moorehead, Caroline | Iris Origo : Marchesa of Val D'orcia. | (London: Alison & Busby, 2014) |
| Moorehead, Caroline | Edda Mussolini : The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe. | (London: Chatto & Windus, 2022) |
| Pia, Anne | Language of my choosing | (Luath Press Ltd., 2017) |
| Piero Tognini | A Mind at War | (New York: Vantage Press, 1990) |
| Rinaldi, Giancarlo | From the Serchio to the Solway | |
| Salvoni, E & Fawkes | Elena. A Life in Soho | (Quartet Books, 1990) |
| Spinetti, Victor | Up Front | (London: Portico, 2006) |
| Tanner, Christine P. | Carlo's Ice Cream Parlour and Tea Rooms. Generational Oral History of an Anglo-Italian family | (Hants: CPT Oral History, 2011) |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Anita Arcari, | The Hokey Pokey Man, | (Y Lolfa, 2010) |
| Borlenghi, Patricia | Zaira, a Girl Before Her Time | (Patrician Press, 2013) |
| Borlenghi, Patricia | Clarice, An Honest Woman | (Patrician Press, 2013) |
| Borlenghi, Patricia | Dorek, Deaf and Unheard | (Patrician Press, 2015) |
| Dye, Natalie | Arandora Star. | (Peach Publishing, 2014) |
| Hughes, Melanie | War Changes Everything | (Patrician Press, 2017) |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Arcari, Virginia, | Picinisco, Uncovering 1000 Years of History | (Amazon: 2017) |
|
Beales, Derek & Eugenio F Biagini |
The Risorgimento And The Unification of Italy | (Routledge, 2002) |
| Bell, Donad Howard, |
Sesto San Giovanni (Class and Culture) Workers, Culture, and Politics in an Italian Town, 1880-1922 |
(Rutgers University Press, 1986) |
| Choate, Mark I | Emigrant Nation: The Making of Italy Abroad | (Harvard University Press, 2008) |
| Di Giovanni, C | Eravamo Terrorist; Lettere dal carcere | (Edizione Paoline, 1989) |
| Dickens, Charles | Pictures from Italy | |
| Dickie, John | Cosa Nostra: A history of the Sicilian Mafia | (Hodder Paperbacks, 2007) |
| Donati, Sabina | A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861-1950 | (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2013) |
| Douglas, Norman | Old Calabria | (Sale: Phoenix Press, 2001) |
| Gilbert, Mark | Italy Reborn: from Fascism to Democracy | (Penguin Random House, 2024) |
| Gilmour, David | The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples | (London and New York: Penguin, 2012) |
| Hibbert, C | Benito Mussolini: the Rise and Fall of Il Duce | (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) |
| Holmes, George | The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy | (Oxford University Press, 1997) |
| Levi, Carlo | Christ Stopped at Eboli | (Penguin Modern Classics, 2000) |
| Robb, Peter | Street Fight in Naples: A City's Unseen History | (Bloomsbury, 2012) |
| Smith, Dennis Mack | Italy and its Monarchy | (Yale University Press, 1992) |
| Trevelyan, G M | Garibaldi’s Defence of the Roman Republic 1848-9 | (Longman's, Green and Co. 1914) |
| Trevelyan, G M | Garibaldi and the Thousand | (Penguin Books, 1962) |
| Trevelyan, G M | Garibaldi and the Making of Italy | (London: Thomas Nelson, 1920) |
| Wicks, Margaret C, | Italian Exiles in London, 1816-1848 | (Forgotten Books, 2012) |
| Woolf, Stuart |
A History of Italy: The Social Constraints of Political Change 1700-1860 |
(Routledge Revivals, 2022) |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Buffini, Moira | Moira Buffini Plays 1: Blavatsky’s Tower; Gabriel; Silence; Loveplay | (Faber and Faber, 2006 |
| Buffini, Moira | Moira Buffini: Plays 2: Dinner; Dying for It; A Vampire Story; Welcome to Thebes; Handbagged | (Faber and Faber, 2015) |
| Buffini, Moira Damon Albarn & Rufus Norris | wonder.land | (Faber and Faber, 2015) |
| De Angelis, April | April De Angelis Plays: "Ironmistress", "Hush", "Playhouse Creatures", "The Positive Hour" | (April de Angelis, 1999) |
| De Angelis, April | Playhouse Creatures | (Samuel French, 1994) |
| De Angelis, April | Jumpy | (Faber and Faber, 2012) |
| Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Bragg, Billy | A Lover Sings: Selected Lyrics | (Faber & Faber, 2015) |
| Nutini, Paolo | These Streets: Song Book | (Faber Music) |
| Pia, Anne | Keeping Away the Spiders: Essays on Breaching Barriers | (Luath Press Ltd., 2020) |
| Pia, Anne | Transitory | (Luath Press Ltd., 2020) |
NB: We welcome corrections, or suggestions for additions to this bibliography. Please email our Librarian with your comments.