1000 Years of Annoying the French

OK
First off, the book's 570 pages long, so, no I did not stay up all night reading it... I'm saving it for the plane trip home next week... so no book review here.

As I mentioned yesterday, WH Smith put on the signing with Stephan Clarke last night, and it was a blast. As with the previous event, the release of Elizabeth Bard's "Lunch in Paris," Stephan did a bit of a reading, answered some questions and then signed the books... who knew, he did the Brisbane International Writers Festival last year (or recently anyway).

and, as so happens when you ask if someone's books are available in a random country like Australia, the minute it was over, I was surrounded by Australians. Including someone I went to high school with, another gal from Brisbane, and a third from Sydney. Itty-bitty world.

anyway, back to the reading - the book, "1000 years of annoying the French" is a brief history of franco-anglo relations - the gaffes, the humor and the sublimely ridiculous. Stephan has used a mixture of sources, including throwing kudos out to the Gutenburg Project (who deserve as much Kudos as you can throw!), wikipedia, and primary source texts from the era.

there are some quite contentious things in there - Joan of Arc, Napoleon, and then there are other, less serious and incredible stories - who kept the bubbles in champagne, and who actually invented the baguette. (French Politics and Food... nothing more serious nom?)

anyways, I haven't reviewed anything in ages, because I haven't had any astonishingly good reads... only lots of fun adventure/urban fantasy. I will rectify this when I get back to Terra Australis.

L.B.