Using original documents, the Allied Occupation of southern Italy, particularly Sicily and Naples, is illustrated by examining crime and unrest by Allied soldiers, deserters, rogue troops and Italian civilians from drunkenness, theft, rape, and murder to riots, demonstrations, black marketeering and prostitution.

Isobel Williams gained a PhD with the Italian Department of Swansea University in 2006, after a BA in Italian in 2001 and a BSc in Microbiology and Zoology in 1974, also at Swansea University, UK. She has had a varied career, mostly spent in Hong Kong and Japan.