A lost legacy puts one of England’s great families in mortal peril.
Lazen Castle, home to the much-envied Lazender
Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the twentieth century, Fausto Angelo Coppi was the campionissimo
- champion of champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate post-war years, he was the first man to win cycling's great double, the Tour de France & Tour of Italy in the same year
- & he did it twice. He achieved mythical status for his crushing solo victories, world titles & world records. But his significance extends far beyond his sport. Coppi's scandalous divorce & controversial early death convulsed a conservative, staunchly Roman Catholic Italy in the 1950s. At a time when adultery was still illegal, Coppi & his lover were dragged from their bed in the middle of the night, excommunicated & forced to face a clamorous legal battle. The ramifications of this case are still being felt today. In " Fallen Angel", acclaimed cycling biographer, William Fotheringham, tells the tragic story of Coppi's life & death
- of how a man who became the symbol of a nation's rebirth after the disasters of war died reviled & heartbroken. Told with insight & intelligence, this is a unique portrait of Italy & Italian sport at a time of tumultuous change.