Showing titles in France

Award-winning writer Richard Williams tells the remarkable story of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world's most iconic motorsports events, which celebrates its centenary in 2023. The event was created by a group of Frenchmen in 1923 and remains uniquely compelling to spectators, to the...

Ian Moore is a stand-up comedian in the UK and a husband, father of three boys, farmhand and chutney-maker in France. He is a mod in both walks of life and most of his time is spent travelling grumpily between the two. Comedian, mod and professional grump Ian Moore has had enough. Tired of being unable to park anywhere near his cramped house in a noisy town he doesn’t like, he hatches a plan to move his wife and young son to a remote corner of the Loire Valley in search of serenity and space.

Bloomsbury presents Crécy by Michael Livingston, read by Rupert Farley. Like Crécy itself, this book is a triumph and the tale it tells gives an old story new life.’- Bernard Cornwell, bestselling author of The Last Kingdom series A groundbreaking new study of the battle of Crécy, in which...

The first of two ground-breaking volumes on the Waterloo campaign, this audiobook is based upon a detailed analysis of sources old and new in four languages. It highlights the political stresses between the Allies, the problems of feeding and paying for the Allied forces assembling in Belgium during the undeclared war and how a strategy was thrashed out. It studies the neglected topic of how the Allies beyond the Rhine hampered the plans of Blücher and Wellington, thus allowing Napoleon to snatch the initiative from them.

Few images more shocked the French population during the Occupation than the photograph of Marshal Philippe Pétain - the great French hero of the First World War - shaking the hand of Hitler on 20 October 1940. In the radio speech after this meeting, Pétain said 'It is I alone who will be judged by History.' Five years later, in July 1945, the hour of judegment - if not yet the judgement of History - arrived.

Illuminating, engrossing and full of surprises, The Discovery of France is a literary exploration of a country few will recognize; from maps and migration to magic, language and landscape, it's a book that reveals the 'real' past of France to tell the whole story - and history - of this remarkable nation.

'Glenny does the sort of history I wish I had been taught at school' Jemima Lewis, The Telegraph Former BBC Central European correspondent Misha Glenny investigates the borders, stories and people of nine countries worldwide, and asks how they acquired the shape and character they have today...

Nick Hewitt draws on fascinating new material to describe the violent sea battle which mirrored the fighting on land, and the complex campaign at sea which enabled the Allied assault. Aboard ships ranging from frail plywood landing craft to sleek destroyers, sailors were active combatants in the operation of June 1944, and had worked tirelessly to secure the Seine Bay in the months preceding it. They fought battles against German submarines, aircraft, and warships, and maintained careful watch to keep control of the English Channel.

Young, bookish Sylvia Beach knows there is no greater city in the world than Paris. But when she opens an English-language bookshop on the bohemian Left Bank, Sylvia can't yet know she is making history. Many leading writers of the day, from Ernest Hemingway to Gertrude Stein, consider Shakespeare and Company a second home. Here some of the most profound literary friendships blossom - and none more so than between James Joyce and Sylvia herself.

In this seventh volume, a detailed examination is made of the period from August 1813 to Aril 1814, the end of the war. This history, written many years after Napier's, draws its information from more firsthand accounts and corrects some of the more glaring mistakes and biases of Napier. Although this audiobook is slightly abridged, the only text removed is a small number of footnotes written entirely in French. All English text from the appendices and footnotes is present.

From best-selling and award winning author of A Brilliant Little Operation comes the long neglected D-Day story of the Resistance uprising and subsequent massacre on the Vercors massif – the largest action by the French Resistance during the Second World War. In early 1941, three separate...

In the tumultuous world of revolutionary France, the enigmatic diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord survived–and shaped–five regimes. Duff Cooper’s elegant biography reveals a man as brilliant as he was controversial; the ‘quick-witted little boy’ who enjoyed the anachronistic world of his great-grandmother’s château became the shrewd, silver-tongued servant of multiple kings and revolutionary leaders. From the salons of pre-revolutionary Paris to the negotiating tables of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, the turncoat Talleyrand exercised his wit, pragmatism and moral ambiguity.

'I couldn't stop reading it . . . a classic of true crime' - Lissa Evans, author of Small Bomb at Dimperley 'A fascinating true crime case study . . . deeply moving' The Times A gripping, explosive murder mystery by acclaimed true crime writer Susannah Stapleton. In April 1929, the body of...

Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organization's F section sent more than 400 agents into France, 39 of whom were women. But while some are widely known - Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan - others have had their stories largely overlooked. Kate Vigurs interweaves for the first time the stories of all 39 female agents. 

The Reign of Terror continues to fascinate scholars as one of the bloodiest periods in French history, when the Committee of Public Safety strove to defend the first Republic from its many enemies, creating a climate of fear and suspicion in revolutionary France. R. R. Palmer's fascinating narrative follows the Committee's deputies individually and collectively, recounting and assessing their tumultuous struggles in Paris and their repressive missions in the provinces. 

This famous treatise began as a letter to a young French friend who asked Edmund Burke’s opinion on whether France’s new ruling class would succeed in creating a better order. Doubtless the friend expected a favorable reply, but Burke was suspicious of certain tendencies of the Revolution from the start and perceived that the revolutionaries were actually subverting the true "social order". Blending history with principle and graceful imagery with profound practical maxims, this book is one of the most influential political treatises in the history of the world.

Louis XIV, known as the Grand Monarch, or the Sun King, was a sovereign of the House of Bourbon who reigned as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years is the longest recorded of any monarch in European history. In the age of absolutism, Louis XIV's France was the leader in the growing centralization of power.

In February, 1815, after nine months in exile, Napoleon Bonaparte, the deposed Emperor of the French, escaped from the Isle of Elba. Seizing the initiative while the European powers bicker amongst themselves at the Congress of Vienna, Napoleon advances towards Belgium with an enormous army, where the combined forces of Prussia and England are cantoned. In Belgium, Captain James Henry Webster has finally returned to a line regiment after being terribly wounded at the Siege of Badajoz three years prior.

Brought to you by Penguin. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NONFICTION A FOYLES TOP TEN READ FOR FEBRUARY | A 2026 HIGHLIGHT IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES, EVENING STANDARD AND THE BOOKSELLER A meeting place for Europe’s bohemian artists. A headquarters of the Nazi occupation. A shelter for...

When Napoleon decided to invade Russia in 1812, it became the event that would lead to his downfall. Setting off on his invasion on June 24th with a force numbering about 600,000–the largest army ever gathered up to that time–the military operation ended six months later with the last French soldiers stumbling out of Russia in total defeat.