Ten centuries' worth of French historical 'facts' bite the dust as Stephen Clarke looks at what has really been going on since 1066 .

Because this book shines a big bright spotlight on all the notable mistakes the French made and even some of the successes the British achieved, but tries to be as brief as possible about everything the British did wrong.Having read Stephen Clarke's 'A Year In The Merde' before this, my experience of reading this one was a quite welcome and pleasant subversion of my expectations - and I do have a penchant for the latter as well.

Stephen Clarke takes a penetrating look into those murky depths, guiding us through all the times when Britain and France have been at war - or at least glowering at each other across the English Channel.The book covers the disputes and arguments between les Anglais and the French, from William the Conqueror to present day. Just as the battle between the sexes will never end (we hope), neither will the millennium-old rivalry between the French and anyone who happens to be born speaking English. Like what the real Richard the Lionheart and his brother John were like, not just how they are depicted in the countless Robin Hood adaptations. Even the French Revolution is a bit of a myth – the Bastille contained only a handful of prisoners when it was stormed, and the 1789 uprising wasn’t an attempt to make France a republic at all – the first revolutionaries wanted a “British-style” monarchy. Bardzo zabawna i pouczająca książka, która pozwoli Wam zrozumieć skomplikowane relacje polityczne i kulturowe pomiędzy dwoma państwami, jak również - przez pryzmat omówionego tu "tysiąclecia" - pomoże zyskać lepszy ogląd na najświeższe wydarzenia zachodzące w Wielkiej Brytanii i na kontynencie.