The late John Julius Norwich was a professional writer and an amateur historian. He never had an academic position, and he picked subjects to please himself. Unlike many academics, he remembered that there was a public composed of people who read books of history for pleasure, not from duty. So he wrote to please not only himself but his readers ... The book offers an easy narrative with a wealth of anecdote and deft character sketches. It is, one should say, somewhat old-fashioned: a history of France and the French state, not of the French people, who are generally ignored except when rioting, rebelling or erecting barricades in Paris ... A History of France is a delightful book—engaging, enthusiastic, sympathetic, funny and sometimes, one has to add, quirky.
...John Julius Norwich's history of France has just such a lively sense of play, whether looking at Roman France, Charlemagne or the way the French and English fell into the Hundred Years' War ... There are more than three colours to France's colourful history and this is a delightful introduction to it: comprehensive in its sweep, and intended to fill the gaps that he thinks some readers, particularly English, have.
...the viscount’s Valentine to Francophiles ... You can’t help but be amused as you meet various kings ... You’ll appreciate the author’s Oxford credentials ... No documentation, but in a sly footnote, Norwich quotes Madame du Deffand: 'It’s the first step that counts.' Regarding Madame: Again, consult Google and then—Ça Alors—continue your merry romp through A History of France.
...Norwich’s quip-filled 'political history' is a mad dash through France’s greatest hits: Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, Francis I, Henri IV, a succession of kings named Louis, the Revolution, Napoleon, Dreyfus, the Somme, Vichy, de Gaulle, and the Resistance ... Although the epilogue’s borderline racist perspective on colonialism gives one pause, as do admiring asides about royal mistresses, which, as with such Gallic delicacies as snails, may leave one feeling queasy, there is much here to learn and enjoy.
Capping a prolific writing and broadcasting career, Norwich deftly distills the history of France from the Gauls to de Gaulle. He gallops through the first 1,500 years of his story, peopled, he writes, with few 'particularly colourful characters' though many devastating conflicts, particularly the Hundred Years’ War, protracted by the reign of a 'hopelessly insane' king, Charles VI ... The author ascribes his love of France to childhood travels there with his mother, Lady Diana Cooper, and living in France when his father, Duff Cooper, was ambassador in the 1940s. This book, he writes, is 'a sort of thank-offering to France.' ... An engaging political history and affectionate homage.
An author of many popular books on history and the son of a British ambassador to France, the late Norwich offers a brief overview of the country’s political and military history from Roman times through 1945, with much on kings, political intrigue, mistresses, and battles ... Norwich gallops through decades and sometimes even centuries of history with extreme speed: the initial 14-page chapter covers 900 years; in a single sentence he dispenses with the greatest health catastrophe in the country’s history, the Black Death ... While often informative and entertaining, this isn’t a deep dive.
