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Hi Sheronb i have read Bella Brum, i am in contact with the authors  Doreen Hopwood and Margaret Dilloway. the book i am writing is more about working life, housing conditions and crime in the Italian communities, plus the affect of ww2 on Italians living in Bedford, Birmingham. I have completed the draft of the Bedford part of the book and am now starting the Birmingham side, which will be time consuming and a lot more difficult, because The Birmingham Italian's were more secretive and Families were all inter- married, and many did not take up the option of British Citizenship mainly because of the cost, but also it suited them to be "invisible" to the authorities! So official records say 2 or 300 Italians in the city in the early 1920s, when the actual number is probably closer to a 1,000. A lot of so called historian's will say a thousand Italian's in Birmingham is rubbish, but another reason for this book is to finally put some kind of true figures on the Italian Population!