Tobias Jones (writer)
Tobias Jones is a British author and journalist. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and then worked at the London Review of Books and the Independent on Sunday. He moved to Parma in Italy in 1999, returning to the UK in 2004. Jones and his wife now manage a ten acre woodland shelter near Shepton Mallet, Somerset called Windsor Hill Wood. The sanctuary is the subject of his 7th book, A Place of Refuge.
Non-Fiction
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.) 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)
Jones' third non-fiction book, Blood on the Altar, is a real-life mystery about the disappearance of a teenager in a church in Potenza in 1993. The case took nearly 20 years to be solved, in which time her family came up against a corrupt church, organised crime and the chronic indifference of the authorities. It was only when a housewife over a thousand miles away in Bournemouth, England, was brutally murdered that the net finally closed in on a hair fetishist from Potenza.
Fiction
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) The second Castagnetti crime novel, White Death, was published in 2011 ("Following his excellent debut...Jones writes with understanding, intelligence and prescience about the country of Berlusconi, bunga-bunga and bungs all round." The Guardian). The Third Castagnetti novel came out in 2013.
Broadcasting
Jones has written and presented two TV series for Rai 3: Ricchioni d’Italia and Cervelli d’Italia. He has also written various documentaries for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, and has sold the film rights to two of his books.
Other
Jones occasionally plays for the England Writers Football team, and has taught writing and literacy at a variety of universities, schools and prisons. His passions include Fabrizio De Andre, Ross Macdonald and Everton and Parma football teams.
Bibliography
- The Dark Heart of Italy (Faber and Faber) ISBN 978-0-571-23593-3
- Utopian Dreams (Faber and Faber) ISBN 978-0-571-23709-8
- The Salati Case (Faber and Faber) ISBN 978-0-571-22381-7
- White Death (Faber and Faber) ISBN 978-0-571-23713-5
- Blood on the Altar (Faber and Faber) ISBN 978-0-571-27493-2
- Death of a Showgirl (Faber and Faber) ISBN 978-0-571-26969-3
- A Place of Refuge (Quercus) ISBN 978-1-848-66248-3
Essays and Journalism
Jones is a regular contributor to the British and Italian press. A selection of his investigative and opinion pieces can be found below: