Type of Fellow: Research Fellow
Description:
Willy Ward is the London correspondent for Il Foglio & Panorama of Italy as well as Rome Correspondent for The Arts Desk.
Hobbies:
I find the idea of a specific, stand alone category of "Hobbies" a hard to
embrace, as a lot of what others consider hobbies (music, travel, theatre,
visiting art galleries & museums, reading, wandering around new cities or
visiting the countryside) all tend to fit into a wider definition of "working
life" for me, since I lucky enough to get to reflect and then write or speak
about or on any number of my private passions and enthusiasms in a broader way.
That said, my atavistic "hunter-gatherer" gene is hyper active, being an avid collector of all manner of things, above all books (of various specific genres) and antique or vintage items of all sorts.
Best holiday in the past 10 years:
Commuting almost monthly between London and Rome, I rarely seem to fit in proper holidays any more, and until thinking about what to write here, I dont think I'd even noticed that I dont really go on holidays any more: the last one would have to be wandering around Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam for 3 weeks in 1998/9 before any of them had become the fashionable destinations they are today. Angkor Wat must even top the Pyramids of Giza as the ultimate historical site.
Favorite book:
A quite impossible task to chose, but of those read in the last ten years, the one I keep coming back to and thinking about the most is "The Rings of Saturn" by W.G. Sebald - which isnt quite a novel, and not quite a travel book (Sebald goes for walks roundnot especially exotic places, and then muses about them, going off onto amazing mental digressions): an acknowledged genius and the most original of minds, Sebald had to get killed in a car crash.
Favorite movie:
A toss up between "Barry Lyndon" by Stanley Kubrick, "The Age of Innocence"
by Martin Scorsese and "Topsy Turvy" by Mike Leigh.