Professor John Dickie is a British author, historian and academic. He specialises in Italy and is Professor of Italian Studies at University College London. Born in Dundee, he was brought up in Leicestershire, and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford, and the University of Sussex. He has taught at UCL since 1993. Dickie is the author of various books: Darkest Italy. The Nation and Stereotypes of the Mezzogiorno, 1860-1900, Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia, Delizia! The Epic History of Italians and their Food, Una catastrofe patriottica. 1908: il terremoto di Messina, Blood Brotherhoods: the Rise of the Italian Mafias, He states his research interests as "Representations of the Italian South, Italian nationalism and national identities, cultural history of liberal Italy, cultural and critical theory, organized crime, Italian food." In 2005 President of the Italian Republic awarded him the Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidariet� Italiana, an Italian knighthood. 

September 23rd, 1963 in Dundee (Age 61)