Belli e dannati (The Beautiful and the Damned) is a work of fiction inspired by real events. Some of the stories are drawn from well-known episodes in Formula One history, others from lesser-known incidents. A few are imaginative reworkings of true events; others are entirely fictional, yet entirely plausible. Each is rooted in the emotional truth of an extraordinary era.
Published by Giunti–Giorgio Nada Editore, the book brings together fourteen stories set between September 1970 and July 1979—a decade in which Formula One balanced glamour and tragedy with unsettling ease.
These stories are not just about racing. They are about the people who chose to live within its world. They feature legends such as Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Clay Regazzoni, Graham Hill, Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve, alongside gifted drivers whose names have gradually faded from memory—Roger Williamson, David Purley and Tony Brise—men whose futures were stolen before they had the chance to fulfil their promise. But above all this book belongs to the women: Nina Rindt, Helen Stewart, Barbro Peterson, Mimicha Reutemann and others, whose stories often become the emotional heart of each narrative.
What interested me most was not the races themselves, but the hopes, fears and relationships of the men and women who were irresistibly drawn to a world they knew could be merciless. A world where death was an accepted companion, yet one that still found room for loyalty, friendship, courage and, above all, love.
Together, the fourteen stories of Belli e dannati and the twelve collected in its sequel, Belli e dannati 2, form the narrative prologue to my novel Le ragazze del muretto, introducing many of the people, themes and emotions that the novel explores in greater depth. Each story is accompanied by an original illustration created especially for this volume by Francesco Mercoldi and Leonardi Spugni of Marco Bianchini’s BI Studio.
“Luca Dal Monte’s stories bring back a world that no longer exists: one of glamour, danger hanging over every race, and towering personalities, even in their cynicism.” La Lettura, Corriere della Sera
