author
Lina Duff Gordon
1874–1964
An English author and journalist who spent much of her life between Britain and Italy, she wrote with a close feel for place, politics, and society. She is also remembered for helping found the library that grew into the British Institute of Florence.
2 Audiobooks
The Story of Perugia
by Margaret Symonds, Lina Duff Gordon
The Story of Assisi
by Lina Duff Gordon
About the author
Born Caroline Lucie Duff-Gordon in 1874, she became widely known as Lina Waterfield after her marriage, though her work also appears under Lina Duff Gordon. She was an English author and a correspondent in Italy for The Observer and The Sunday Times, building a literary life that was closely tied to both British and Italian cultural circles.
Waterfield is especially associated with Florence and with the creation of the library that later became the British Institute of Florence. Her writing drew on long firsthand experience of Italian life, and she published books that combined memoir, travel, and social observation.
She died in 1964. The record of her life suggests a writer deeply engaged with the worlds around her: family history, Italian society, and the links between Britain and Europe.