Reviewed by Gillian May, Berkelouw Staff

With a chronology starting in 1532 and ending in 1918 this book looks at the emergence of the French nation focussing on the lives of ordinary people living in the countryside in dispersed villages. Whether these people knew of the existence of a country called “France” is a point of discussion in the book - they might say they were natives of the town whose church bell they could hear from their home or field and that to cross a river was to visit a foreign country with a different language and culture.

Robb invites the reader to stand on the road of a 17th century country village and wonders whether we could pick the age of the people we would see around us; whether we could understand their language or identify the tasks in which they were engaged.

This wonderful history looks at the creation of an identifiable map of France, the spread of a language called French and the emergence of travel as a recreation, even a civic duty. It explains how the French countryside was made accessible to wanderers on foot or donkey or barge and outlines the slow spread of road and rail systems. Robb is a diligent and ingenious user of original source material – for example by examining the recruitment records of the military he can describe the physical and mental condition of 20-year-old countrymen of the mid 18th century.

This is an absorbing, informative and entertaining book.