Gabriele d'Annunzio by John Woodhouse (Oxford, £16.99 in UK)

It is hard to recreate today just what d'Annunzio meant to an entire generation, or almost two generations; try to imagine a celebrity like the Beatles or Mohammed Ali, allied to a poetic reputation rivalling Yeats's and a position in public life comparable - for a time at least - to Mussolini's. D'Annunzio was also a first World War hero (against the Austrians), a daring aviator, a conscious Nietzschean Superman, a lover of women on the grand scale even subtracting the numerous fantasies and rumours, an international salon figure. That so much should be accomplished by a small, bald, physically insignificant man is all the more remarkable. Though he had a large streak of the charlatan and exhibitionist in his make-up, d'Annunzio also had the talent and panache to live up to his image and was a pioneer in the use of publicity for self-aggrandisement Given such a character and such material, John Woodhouse could hardly have gone wrong.