I thoroughly enjoyed this book. No French person is going to enjoy it true, but for anyone else it is very interesting, enlightening and so entertaining. He is a witty funny writer. History is very interpretive and I am going to give Stephen Clarke the benefit of the doubt regarding his research and his experience having lived many years in France. I did not interpret this book as French-bashing at all. He loves the country and the people and pokes fun at them too for their nationalism and jingoism.Read it and laugh It's an Englishmen writing about the French ... so the snarky tone is a given and expected. It does tire a bit after a while but I found the stories well told and quite interesting. Towards the end however a lost my faith in the accuracy a bit when the battle of Waterloo was presented as having taken place in Belgium. The battle was in 1815. Belgium was founded in 1831. With such a glaring oversight in the book. How accurate and reliable are the other facts presented?A good read if you have an interest in European history and enjoyed Mr Clarke's earlier books. Don't go in expecting a typical historical book though. It's more entertaining but less accurate.
Worth reading for the title alone. Gets rather repetitive in tone though.
—personal101
now I know why few European countries hates British so much.
—aiden1010
Very enjoyable and informative book! Highly recommend it!
—Monika
Quite simply fantastic - even if you're not a francophobe!!
—Terapsina
History with a big ;-)
—Nina
