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About Geoff Andrews

Geoff Andrews is staff tutor in politics at the Open University. He is the author of Not a Normal Country: Italy After Berlusconi (Pluto, 2005), published in Italian as Un Paese Anormale (Effepi Libri, 2007); and of The Slow Food Story: Politics and Pleasure (Pluto Press / McGill-Queen's, 2008). Geoff Andrews is an associate editor of Soundings. His website is here

Articles by Geoff Andrews

Berlusconi's shadow: hope to fear

Geoff Andrews 6 February 2013

Silvio Berlusconi has survived ejection and scandal to return to the centre of Italian politics. But it is his opponents more than the man himself who carry the blame for his continuing influence, says Geoff Andrews.

Berlusconi's last stand

Geoff Andrews 10 December 2012

Italy's great survivor wants to become prime minister for the fourth time. The decision opens an intense electoral contest over the country's direction, says Geoff Andrews.

Hobsbawm’s legacy for Labour

Geoff Andrews 16 October 2012

Despite all the compliments, we are entitled to ask: what has Britain’s current Labour Party really learned from Eric Hobsbawm?

Brave New World reimagined

Geoff Andrews 16 July 2012

Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World (1931) is acquiring fresh meanings in another era of crisis and pacifying solutions, says Geoff Andrews.

James Klugmann, a complex communist

Geoff Andrews 27 February 2012

An intellectual who spent his career inside Britain's communist party, and who was long regarded even by many of his comrades with a degree of pity, may seem an unlikely candidate for reappraisal. But the life of James Klugmann, who was born on 27 February 1912, was also intertwined with some of the 20th century's biggest themes and controversies: depression and fascism, war and communism, loyalty and betrayal, political commitment and moral courage. Geoff Andrews, who is writing Klugmann's biography, reflects on an influential yet haunted man.

Silvio Berlusconi's legacy

Geoff Andrews 14 December 2011
It is a month since Italy's long-term prime minister resigned. But his pervasive influence on Italy's public life and the infirmity of the country's political class mean that it is too early to call this the post-Berlusconi era, says Geoff Andrews.

August 1990: a very British coup

Geoff Andrews 5 September 2011
The slow implosion of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s was echoed in the internal divisions and crises that consumed its western associates. Indeed, the once influential Communist Party of Great Britain faced its own trauma exactly a year before the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Geoff Andrews recalls the moment when new-times became end-times.  

Italy beyond Berlusconi: the "normal" solution

Geoff Andrews 20 June 2011
Italy’s opposition has wounded Silvio Berlusconi. But it is still far from removing the prime minister - and even further from healing Italian democracy. Here, the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn offers important lessons, says Geoff Andrews.

The new food movement: politics and pleasure

Geoff Andrews 4 April 2011
The emergent movements around the politics of food are a vital component of debates on the planet’s future, says Geoff Andrews.

Italy united, Italy divided: the nation at 150

Geoff Andrews 16 March 2011
Italy’s official celebration of its founding moment finds the country in a dark mood and a long way from home. Geoff Andrews marks the moment and looks for signs of hope.

Berlusconi - and Italy - on trial

Geoff Andrews 16 February 2011
The new legal case against Italy's prime minister is also a test for a divided nation at a critical stage in its history, says Geoff Andrews.

Silvio Berlusconi: endgame, prolonged

Geoff Andrews 14 December 2010
A narrow confidence vote in Italy’s chamber of deputies extends the turbulent career of Italy’s scandal-ridden prime minister. But the corrosion of Italian democracy under “Berlusconismo” goes wider than one man, says Geoff Andrews.

Silvio Berlusconi: the long goodbye

Geoff Andrews 21 October 2010
Italy's prime minister is under severe domestic pressure after a fallout with his closest political ally. But a great political survivor still has room to manage his exit strategy, says Geoff Andrews.

Silvio Berlusconi: culture bites politics

Geoff Andrews 8 June 2010
A successful, intimidating prime minister has moulded Italy’s public life in his own image. A fearful, supine opposition is paralysed by his achievement. But there is one source of hope, says Geoff Andrews.    

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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