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Tobias Jones is a British author and journalist. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and he then worked at the London Review of Books and the Independent on Sunday. He moved to Parma in Italy in 1999. He returned to the UK in 2004. Jones and his wife now manage a ten acre woodland shelter near Shepton Mallet, Somerset.[1]
His first book, The Dark Heart of Italy was a bestseller in Britain, Italy and the United States. ("The Dark Heart will ensure Italy remains an object of our fascination". Sebastian Skeaping, The Observer 2003.)[2] Following its publication, he was short-listed for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award.
In January 2007 he published his second book Utopian Dreams (Faber & Faber) after a year spent travelling with his wife Francesca and first daughter Benedetta across five communities in Britain and Italy. The book was featured on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week as well as being Book of the Week on that network. ("a refreshingly old-fashioned belief in the virtue of human community". Ian Thomson writing in The Independent)[3]
His third book, The Salati Case, was the first in a series of crime novels featuring Castagnetti, a bee-keeping private detective in northern Italy. ("Observations like these lift this book above the usual level of the mystery novel". The Scotsman, June 2009) [4]
Jones has written and presented two TV series for Rai 3: Ricchi d’Italia and Cervelli d’Italia. He has also written various documentaries for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.
In January 2008, Jones accepted a commission by the Daily Mail to write a malicious article against the city of Verona. Tim Parks, who had originally been asked by the Mail to write the article but refused, was awarded the keys to the city and its honorary citizenship.
Jones is a regular contributor to the British and Italian press and plays for the England Writers Football team. His obsessions include Fabrizio De Andre[5], Ross Macdonald[6] and Everton and Parma football teams.