Guareschi was a joker about serious things. The most dangerous politicians are those who cloak their megalomaniac psychology in a political ideology that masquerades as a universal panacea for the human race.

Guareschi is out to get them. He takes as his target not individuals but attitudes, mind-sets and political ideologies, except one time when criticism of the man he brought to power in 1948 lands him in prison for libel, six years on.

These stories cover the years 1952 to 1960, in which Don Camillo and Peppone enter the world of cinema, but Guareschi has difficulty in enticing them to join him in Parma's San Francesco jail. Issues of class, heredity, politics and space exploration provide the necessary carrot, however, as the author returns to join them in his beloved la Bassa and shows, yet again, how perfectly are the events and crazy values of the wider world reflected in those of their village.
'Prescient and perceptive' (Tobias Jones) ... 'Absolutely delightful in their satirical swipes at human weakness' (Paul Merton).