“This book is written in the belief that the average English-speaking man or woman has remarkably little knowledge of French history,” begins John Julius Norwich. “We may know a bit about Napoleon or Joan of Arc or Louis XIV, but for most of us that’s about it.”Norwich’s final book is the one he always wanted to write, a vibrantly colorful chronicle of his beloved France. From frowning Roman generals and belligerent Gallic chieftains through Charlemagne, Marie Antoinette, the storming of the Bastille, Vichy, the Resistance, and beyond, his tale is packed with heroes and villains, romance and revolution, told with memorable stories and racy anecdotes, and illustrated with original maps.