It turns out that the guillotine is not a French invention, but champagne is an English drink. The story of the centuries-old confrontation between the two countries is told with great humor and love for both great powers.
The French and the British have such a long common history that they have long since become «one family». “We stand side by side or face to face in all historical photographs, and when everything is smooth between us, we can even laugh nostalgically at how we once fought. Our story is really a story of fights,” says British writer Stephen Clark. Having conceived a book about a thousand-year history of mutual grievances, he discovered that the French and English versions of the same events often appeared in diametrically opposed perspectives (which is not surprising!), and tried to restore justice, removing the excessive heroic gloss from the French battle reports with gentle humor and peaceful legends. The story of Joan of Arc and the Battle of Waterloo, portraits of French and English kings, Napoleon and General de Gaulle, «the tragicomic truth about the storming of the Bastille» — a look at history from the opposite bank of the English Channel, even to us, readers from the outside, brings many surprises and curious discoveries. What about the French?! And champagne, it turns out, is “an English product in everything but the name,” and “the guillotine is not a French invention.” And yet, probably, the French will not be offended — Clark writes not only with humor, but also with great love for their country.
Ripol-classic, 464 p.