About the authors

Daniela De Gregorio and Michael G. Jacob have been married for 27 years. They live in Spoleto, a small town in Umbria, central Italy. Daniela teaches Philosophy, while Michael teaches English and the History of Photography.

Critique of Criminal Reason (Faber & Faber, 2006) was their first published novel.
Days of Atonement (Faber & Faber) was published in the UK on 2 August, 2007.

Daniela De Gregorio

I was born an only child in Spoleto, Italy, in 1950. I studied Philosophy and History at the University of Perugia, Italy. My father Giuseppe De Gregorio, is a renowned abstract painter (http://web.tiscalinet.it/giuseppedegregorio), while my mother was elected 'Miss Spoleto' shortly after the Second World War.
There was only one avenue left open to me - writing! Even so, I haven't given up my job. I still teach Philosophy and Modern History in an Italian high school.

Michael G. Jacob

Born in 1948, I went to De La Salle, a Roman Catholic grammar school in Liverpool. After studying English at Newcastle-on-Tyne, I graduated B. A. (Hons) in 1970. I taught Eng Lit for nine years, then moved to Italy in 1980. That was the year I married Daniela! We lived in Venice for six years, then we moved to Spoleto, Umbria, where I co-own a language school with an Italian friend, Giuseppe Marcocchi. I love Italy - art, food, good weather, a relaxed life style. It has got the lot! I don't think that I could ever settle in the UK again.
In my spare time, I collect old photographs, daguerreotypes for the most part, but also early Italian images.
In 1992, I published a technical account in Italian of how the very first photographs on metal plates (i.e., daguerreotypes) were coloured by hand: Il Dagherrotipo a Colori (Florence: Nardini Editore). The book was translated by... yep, Daniela De Gregorio!