Product Description

From Blenheim and Waterloo to 'Up Yours, Delors' and 'Hop Off You Frogs', the cross-Channel relationship has been one of rivalry, misapprehension and suspicion. But it has also been a relationship of envy, admiration and affection. In the nearly two centuries since the final defeat of Napoleon, France and Britain have spent much of that time as allies - an alliance that has been almost as uneasy, as competitive and as ambivalent as the generations of warfare. Their rivalry both on peace and war, for good and ill, has shaped the modern world, from North America to India in the eighteenth century, in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it is still shaping Europe today. This magisterial book, by turns provocative and delightful, always fascinating, tells the rich and complex story of the relationship over three centuries, from the beginning of the great struggle for mastery during the reign of Louis XIV to the second Iraq War and the latest enlargement of the EU. It tells of wars and battles, ententes and alliances, but also of food, fashion, sport, literature, sex and music. Its cast ranges from William and Mary to Tony Blair, from Voltaire to Eric Cantona; its sources from ambassadorial dispatches to police reports, from works of philosophy to tabloid newspapers, from guidebooks to cartoons and films. It's a book which brings both British humour and Gallic panache to the story of these two countries, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, in victory and in defeat, in dominance and in decline.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142396 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 816 pages

Guardian
An "enthralling narrative...intelligent, witty and surprising"

The Observer, April 15, 2007
"each defensive of their homeland while both unimpeachably stringent historians; this approach is a perfect match for their unwieldy subject."

Independent
`Endlessly fascinating...an enthralling account...brilliantly illuminated through telling detail and vivid sketches of protagonists'

Customer Reviews

superb and revealing account
being puny of bicep, i waited eagerly for the paperback of this rave-reviewed analysis of the relationship between britain and france. i wish now i'd made the effort to go to the gym last year, and could have read it hot off the press. even for someone with a dilettante interest in history, it's a fascinating and insightful read with an undercurrent of gentle observational humour that illuminates the absurdities of diplomacy, politics and prejudice.
more from this talented team, please!