The 1970s were years of high inflation in Italy. As the price of goods increased and the lira, a high denomination currency, was debased, the country faced a chronic lack of small change. Those were the years when coins were used to operate all sorts of devices, from pay phones to launderettes, vending machines and jukeboxes.
C K Scott Moncrieff was born into a well-to-do Scottish family in the late 19th century. While a schoolboy, he received an entree into the gay literary coterie centred on Robbie Ross, Oscar Wilde's lover, leading to a lifelong friendship with Wilde's son, Vyvyan Holland.
Simon Martin, Sport Italia: the Italian Love Affair with Sport (I.B.Tauris £19.99) Jimmy Burns, La Roja: a Journey Through Spanish Football (Simon Schuster £14.99)