I run a small used and rare book business in Lincoln, England. I am the product of an Italian mother and an English father and most of my early holidays were spent in a village called Quincinetto. Situated in Northern Italy, it sits on the border of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, home of Western Europe's highest mountains. One of the fondest childhood holiday memories is of getting up at 6am and going to help a farmer milk and graze his cattle before cleaning out the stable.

I speak Italian, some French and a few words of Spanish. In the last few years I have started to travel more widely, governed to some extent by a passion for mountains and wilderness and the literature and photography associated with it.