A History of France

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Stéphane Hénaut’s wide-ranging career in food includes working in the Harrods fromagerie, cooking for the Lord Mayor of London’s banquets, and selling obscure vegetables in a French fruiterie.

JJN's rich and creamy narrative history of France, not to be missed unless you're totally jaded on the topic. First published in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, and suppressed by the Vichy government, this classic work .

The leading British interpreter of French history from 1940 produced this valuable guide to a period of major transformation in French history. It seems not, and I can’t imagine a more fascinating or titillating angle to explore the history of France than this wonderful book. There, the young man meets the poet Louise de Vilmorin, “my father’s mistress,” whom, he claims, “my mother loved…almost as much as my father did,” adding that his mother, Lady Diana Cooper, “had no conception of jealousy” about his father’s many lovers.

Before the eighteenth century, the very idea of nation-building-a central component of nationalism-did not exist. When Philip VI came to the throne, in 1328, France was a weak country, with much of its modern area under English rule. From Vercingetorix's attempt to unite the Gauls against the Roman Empire to Charlemagne and from Francis I to Napoleon, Norwich chronicles France’s fascinating history. As told by a Franco-American couple (Stéphane is a cheesemonger, Jeni is an academic) this is an “impressive book that intertwines stories of gastronomy, culture, war, and revolution.The modern state, however we conceive of it today, is based on a pattern that emerged in Europe in the period from 1100 to 1600. The Parisians, reeling from defeat in the Franco-Prussian War set up their own revolutionary administration. Norwich actually met the General and he shares his first hand opinions of him that are not flattering. Not that the general's pie earns him an easy ride; Norwich is still prepared to admit that, on a larger stage, "The folly and pettiness of de Gaulle pass belief".

Historian Andrew Roberts, author of a bestselling biography of Napoleon, introduces us to the books that shaped how he sees l'Empereur—including little-known sources from those who knew Napoleon personally. This book does not start with prehistorical France as the author aptly puts “Pre-history belongs to the Historians”.

Being the son of Duff Cooper, for whom the title Viscount Norwich of Aldrich in the County of Sussex was created in 1952, the author casually drops the names of de Gaulle and Winston Churchill, men he had met through his father when he was a teenager.