1000 Years of Annoying the French

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This is of course the Prince of Wales’s motto to this day, though subsequent princes have not adopted John of Bohemia’s custom of fighting while tied up and blind. And now it’s time to put our differences aside and start working together as one people, living together on the same planet and facing the same problems. It’s not tactless or provocative – relations couldn’t be better between the British Embassy and their French hosts – it’s simply there. 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.

Things have been just a little awkward between Britain and France ever since the Norman invasion in 1066. In it they will find a full supply of delightful anecdotes, giving them all the amunitions they need to silence the arrogant French. One sided and biased (and that’s not a criticism), 1000 Years of Annoying the French is a very good primer on the history of France and Britain and if you already know the history of these two long time rivals, then Clarke’s book gives an irreverent twist to the well known events and make you exclaim, “ Yes!Only Churchill stood by the Général, and made an official announcement to the effect that ‘His Majesty’s government recognizes General de Gaulle as leader of all free Frenchmen, wherever they may be. The author of A Year in the M***e and Talk to the Snail offers a highly biased and hilarious view of French history in this international bestseller.

But at the same time, any mention of the history of Quebec rouses burning anti-British and anti-American outrage in a French person’s heart, as if someone was talking about a favourite café of theirs that had been turned into a Starbucks. But the British Cabinet, headed by Attlee and Eden, urged Churchill not to withdraw support from de Gaulle.Brits and Anglophiles of every national origin will devour Clarke’s decidedly biased accounts of British triumph and French ignominy. Log in Keep reading with a freetrial Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. 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.

Someone who would tax them half to death but who might just keep them alive long enough to pay the taxes – a lot like modern governments, in fact. I think the book could have used a little bit of poking fun at the British every once in a while, to balance things out and make this interpretation of history come across as a bit more objective. The humorous aspect of the book also gave it a very irreverent tone, which didn't bother me except that it too often derailed in salacious gossipy remarks that were often NOT entirely true or based in fact. Clarke covers the Battle of Hastings in 1066, The Hundred Years War, losing Canada on the Plains of Abraham (that was the French losing), Napoleon's defeat and every major event in Anglo-French relations. It documents the often fractious history between France and England, throwing up a lot of information about the ripple effect this relationship has had on world events.The first big laugh I had was when Clarke described William II (informally known as Rufus) of England as "a medieval Paris Hilton" for his indulgences and a love of "make up, dresses and yappy little dogs". In another memorandum to Eden, Churchill includes intelligence information that he said described de Gaulle as "thoroughly unfriendly both to Britain and to the United States and that while affecting communist sympathies he had fascist tendencies.