Far from exaggerating the violence of Italian fascism, it could be argued that Joe Wright’s series Mussolini: Son of the Century plays it down, writes John Foot

In her article about the TV series Mussolini: Son of the Century, about the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy, Caroline Moorhead writes: “The March on Rome was, in fact, concluded not in widespread bloodshed, as the series suggests, but remarkably peacefully. In Milan, Turin and Parma, where opposition was expected, the fascists took control quietly and smoothly” (As the far right surges around the globe, what can a new TV series about Mussolini teach us?, 26 February).

Try telling that to the people of the neighbourhood of San Lorenzo in Rome, where numerous residents were killed by armed blackshirts during the March on Rome in October 1922. Argos Secondari was a well-known anti-fascist in Rome. He was attacked in his home by numerous fascists and savagely beaten, never recovering from his head injuries and ending his life in a psychiatric hospital. Giuseppe Lemmi, a communist, was kidnapped from the street by hundreds of blackshirts. His hair and beard were shaved, he was forced to drink castor oil, and he was paraded through the streets with humiliating signs around his neck. Many ordinary people were murdered in Rome and in other cities at that time, while private homes were raided and sacked.

Joël Le Scouarnec is accused of attacking 299 patients at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014

A former French surgeon on trial for the sexual abuse of hundreds of patients has told the court he used his status as a doctor to attack children but still believed he was a good medical practitioner.

“I was a surgeon who benefited from my status to attack children, I don’t deny that,” Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, told a court in Vannes, Brittany, on Tuesday, in what is one of France’s largest ever child abuse cases.

Joël Le Scouarnec is accused of attacking 299 patients at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014

A former French surgeon on trial for the sexual abuse of hundreds of patients has told the court he used his status as a doctor to attack children but still believed he was a good medical practitioner.

“I was a surgeon who benefited from my status to attack children, I don’t deny that,” Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, told a court in Vannes, Brittany, on Tuesday, in what is one of France’s largest ever child abuse cases.

Eight unpublished stories by the To Kill a Mockingbird author will be issued later this year as The Land of Sweet Forever

Never-before-seen short stories by Harper Lee will be published later this year, it has been announced.

Eight short stories written before the author started the novel that would become To Kill a Mockingbird were found in Lee’s New York City apartment after she died in 2016. They will be published in a collection titled The Land of Sweet Forever, alongside eight previously published non-fiction pieces by Lee, and an introduction by Casey Cep, author of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.

Eight unpublished stories by the To Kill a Mockingbird author will be issued later this year as The Land of Sweet Forever

Never-before-seen short stories by Harper Lee will be published later this year, it has been announced.

Eight short stories written before the author started the novel that would become To Kill a Mockingbird were found in Lee’s New York City apartment after she died in 2016. They will be published in a collection titled The Land of Sweet Forever, alongside eight previously published non-fiction pieces by Lee, and an introduction by Casey Cep, author of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.