Nicholas Burgess Farrell

Nicholas Burgess Farrell (October 2, 1958) is an English journalist and the author of Mussolini: A New Life, accused by some of playing down the crimes of Benito Mussolini, a former Italian dictator.

Farrell's most famous article is an interview with Silvio Berlusconi for The Spectator, where the Italian prime minister made some statements which sparked criticism in Italy.

Today he writes mainly for Libero, a right-wing newspaper supportive of Berlusconi's politics. . In 2010 he was responsible for the publishing of a collection of Mussolini diaries, despite those diaries being a well known fake since 2007.

Early life

Farrell was born in London, on October 2, 1958. He studied history at the University of Cambridge, earning his B.A on June 20, 1980. He completed his apprenticeship and his National Certificate Examination exam in October 1984.

He worked as journalist for the Telegraph Publishing Limited from 1987 to 1996, later moving to The Spectator from April 1996 to July 1998; Farrell then moved to Forlì, Italy, married an Italian woman and joined the Italian journalist association, at first working for the local newspaper "La voce di Romagna" and later for "Libero".

Interview with Berlusconi

In August 2003 Farrell, along with Boris Johnson, interviewed Silvio Berlusconi in Porto Rotondo. The interview included many alleged statements by the Italian premier that caused scandal in public opinion.

According to Farrell, Berlusconi stated that "Mussolini never killed anyone. He just had some people sent on holiday in exile", and that "Mussolini was a 'benevolent dictator". In the interview, Berlusconi publicly swore the innocence of the ex-president of Sicily Marcello Dell'Utri (who was sentenced for collusion with the Mafia, a conviction which was later quashed) describing him as being a "catholic, a believer and a man of culture, with an outstanding family and a well-off father". He said that Dell'Utri was a victim of the "crazy communist judges", and that his only fault was of trusting people he did not know were notorious mafiosi.

When the first excerpts from the two-part interview were published in Italy on the Italian newspaper "La Voce", Berlusconi stated that his words had been manipulated by the "criminal" Farrell, that the interview had been just a bunch of small talk with some friends and that he was "a little tipsy" from drinking two bottles of champagne.

Farrell denied the accusations and gave a summary of the conditions of the interview, stating that Berlusconi himself asked when and where the article was expected to be published, that the interview set-up took several weeks and that the talk was recorded on tape. He denied any drinking of alcohol at the interview, since only lemon tea was served at their table. He ended his rebuttal with the menace of publishing a third part of the interview if Berlusconi would not "be good".

Controversies about his work

On homosexuality

In a column Farrell said that he would prefer his son Francesco Winston not to be gay but that it was far better to be gay than a Communist. The article was apologetic toward a statement of Berlusconi's, "better be fond of nice girls than homosexuals". In the article Farrell stated that anyone would prefer a straight son to a gay son. He admitted that one night he was tricked himself when, "in his dark times", he went home with a transvestite he was convinced was a woman until he got "her" into bed. This prompted him to ask himself: "I wanted her so, so what if she was a man? am I gay too?" To which his answer was: "I only wanted her because I thought she was a woman therefore I am not gay."

On smoking and drinking

Farrell is a vocally in favour of smoking and drinking, stating in one of his articles that heavy smokers and drinkers like him are prosecuted by the left-wing "health fascists" just like the Jews were prosecuted in the Shoah.

Farrell had his driving license suspended twice (on April 18, 2009 and on February 2, 2011), for driving his "anticommunist black" (as he dubs it) Land Rover Defender under the influence of alcohol. According to Farrell, police agents halted him only after allegedly identifying his car due to an obsession against him. The car, formally owned by the wife, escaped confiscation. His English driving license was not revoked, but his permit to drive in Italy was. According to what is reported in the article, Farrell's alcohol rate was higher than 1,5 g/l, passing the limit for seizure.

On terrorism

After the 7 July 2005 London bombings Nicholas Farrell on "La Voce di Romagna" wrote about Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, two UNICEF volunteers kidnapped in 2004 by Shia militants in Iraq. He described them as "viscid sewer bugs", "accomplices to terrorists", and "traitors". Farrell was sued for the defamatory comments by Simona Pari, and later sentenced to four months' jail time (a suspended sentence) and fined 25000 euro in punitive damages. Farrell appealed.

On communism

On 11 February 2011 Farrell wrote an article for Libero, titled "Sovietic cuisine" and published on page 32, commenting the alleged "definitive proof" (in Timothy D. Snyder's book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin) that in Soviet Russia children were killed and eaten to feed starving families. In the article Farrell, instead of discussing the new insights brought by the book to inter-wars history, focused on only three pages of the book about cannibalism and used those to accuse the Italian left parties of being supportive to the practice of man-eating.

On politics

Farrell usually keeps a paternal and admiring stance toward Berlusconi, sometimes slightly criticising his actions but still adhering to the pro-Berlusconi editorial line of the newspaper he writes for.

In his first-page column, Farrell often calls Berlusconi "Il Magnifico", "The only one who can govern this country", "Genius", and in at least one occurrence dubbed his adversaries and opposing journalists "those shitty Italians".

When Gianfranco Fini, then leader of the neo-fascist party Alleanza Nazionale and second in command in Berlusconi's party, became critical about his leader Farrell wrote that Fini was a traitor, a leftist and a nazist, keeping Berlusconi away from creating a true "modern, anglosaxon and liberal right party". According to Farrell, Fascism was in may aspects a leftist movement, and the Shoah was a result of this leftist politic. The article received widespread criticism from other newspapers and was mocked on many websites.

On Berlusconi's sex scandals

In his article "La vera vittima del bunga bunga? È il Cavaliere" Farrell wrote against a demonstration held in many Italian cities in February 2011 asking Berlusconi to resign after the emerging sex scandals involving sex with minors and prostitutes. According to Farrell, leftists always agreed with "easy abortions, assisted suicides, transvestites, fags , whores, partner-swappers and Muslims with four wives", but when Berlusconi is involved everything becomes despicable; he says he could not understand why feminists who were all about self-determination now object to girls using their sex appeal to advance their careers.

In a separate article Ferrell boasted about having sex with multiple women, sometimes minors and sometimes after payment, in order to downplay the seriousness of Berlusconi's sexual behaviours.

Works

• “A Chip off the Old Block?”, the Independent, 25 June 2003.
• Mussolini: A New Life (2003) ISBN 0-297-81965-8 (cloth) ISBN 1-84212-123-5 (paper)