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When he's not Swift, he's Twain\" - \"Sunday Telegraph\". \"A book of eccentric brilliance that covers everything from Jamaica as lieu de memoire to the sexual magnetism of General Nasser\" - \"Times Literary Supplement\". \"A hilarious blend of cultural history, biography and memoir\" - \"Guardian\". \"An entertaining yomp through the literary and cinematic heartland of James Bond country\" - \"Sunday Times\". \"A diverting book of true fanaticism\" - \"Metro\". \"Almost ridiculously enjoyable\" - \"New Statesman\". \"A delightfully quirky, immediately engaging book\" - \"Scotland on Sunday\".","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49608059060497,"sku":"GOR006380858","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659488239889,"sku":"GOR012210175","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0330450298.jpg?v=1751433610"},{"product_id":"germania-book-simon-winder-9780374254001","title":"Germania","description":"Sitting on a bench at a communal table in a restaurant in Regensburg, his plate loaded with disturbing amounts of bratwurst and sauerkraut made golden by candlelight shining through a massive glass of beer, Simon Winder was happily swinging his legs when a couple from Rottweil politely but awkwardly asked: So: why are you here? This book is an attempt to answer that question. Why spend time wandering around a country that remains a sort of dead zone for many foreigners, surrounded as it is by a force field of historical, linguistic, climatic, and gastronomic barriers? Winder's book is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild. Germania is a very funny book on serious topics-how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a book full of curiosities: odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. 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An unstable mixture of wizards, obsessives, melancholics, bores, musicians and warriors, they saw off – through luck, guile and sheer mulishness – any number of rivals, until finally packing up in 1918. From their principal lairs along the Danube they ruled most of Central Europe and Germany and interfered everywhere – indeed the history of Europe hardly makes sense without them.  Danubia plunges the reader into a maelstrom of alchemy, skeletons, jewels, bear-moats, unfortunate marriages and a guinea-pig village. Full of music, piracy, religion and fighting, it is the history of a dynasty, but it is at least as much about the people they ruled, who spoke many different languages, lived in a vast range of landscapes, believed in many rival gods and often showed a marked ingratitude towards their oddball ruler in Vienna.  Joining Germania and Lotharingia in Simon Winder's endlessly fascinating retelling of European history, Danubia is a hilarious, eccentric and witty saga.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49643442143505,"sku":"GOR013022006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49735889223953,"sku":"NGR9781529026160","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49790093328657,"sku":"GOR012458402","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51342803796241,"sku":"GOR012888289","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1529026164.jpg?v=1767353472"},{"product_id":"man-who-saved-britain-book-simon-winder-9780312426668","title":"The Man Who Saved Britain","description":"\u003cp\u003eBond. James Bond. The ultimate British hero--suave, stoic, gadget-driven--was, more than anything, the necessary invention of a traumatized country whose self-image as a great power had just been shattered by the Second World War. By inventing the parallel world of secret British greatness and glamour, Ian Fleming fabricated an icon that has endured long past its maker's death. In \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Saved Britain,\u003c\/i\u003e Simon Winder lovingly and ruefully re-creates the nadirs of his own fandom while illuminating what Bond says about sex, the monarchy, food, class, attitudes toward America, and everything in between. 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Their unprecedented rule is the focus of Simon Winder's vivid third book, \u003ci\u003eDanubia\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWinder's approach is friendly, witty, personal; this is a narrative that, while erudite and well researched, prefers to be discursive and anecdotal. In his survey of the centuries of often incompetent Habsburg rule which have continued to shape the fate of Central Europe, Winder does not shy away from the horrors, railing against the effects of nationalism, recounting the violence that was often part of life. But this is a history dominated above all by Winder's energy and curiosity. Eminently readable and thrillingly informative, \u003ci\u003eDanubia\u003c\/i\u003e is a treat that readers will be eager to dip into.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49796685955345,"sku":"CIN0374175292G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50578089378065,"sku":"GOR012540463","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50599627391249,"sku":"GOR009948718","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50916297670929,"sku":"CIN0374175292VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53269808611601,"sku":"GOR010284435","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374175292.jpg?v=1750941973"},{"product_id":"lotharingia-book-simon-winder-9781509803286","title":"Lotharingia","description":"A Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2019 Shortlisted for The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award  'No Briton has written better than Winder about Europe' Sunday Times  At the heart of western Europe lies a huge swath of land, stretching from the mud and fogs of the North Sea coast, down through countless market towns, ports, fortresses and ancient cathedrals, through a mass of river systems and forests, all the way to the great barrier of the Alps. Divided by their languages, religions and frontiers, everyone living there shares one thing: that they are inhabitants of a lost part of Europe – Lotharingia.  In his highly entertaining new book Simon Winder tells the story of this ghostly but persistent presence. In AD 843, the three surviving grandsons of the great Emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. After years of bitter squabbles over who would inherit the family land, they finally decided to divide the territory and go their separate ways. In a moment of staggering significance, one grandson inherited what became France, another Germany and the third Lotharingia, the chunk that initially divided the other two chunks: ‘the lands of Lothar’. The dynamic between these three great zones has dictated much of our subsequent fate.  Lotharingia is a history of this in-between land and joins the equally fascinating Germania and Danubia in Simon Winder’s personal exploration of Europe. In this beguiling, hilarious and compelling book we retrace how both from west and from east any number of ambitious characters have tried and failed to grapple with these people. Over many centuries, not only has Lotharingia brought forth many of Europe’s greatest artists, inventors and thinkers, but it has also reduced many a would-be conqueror to helpless tears of rage and frustration.  'He is a master of the art of making history both funny and fun, with never any loss of seriousness. Once again he brings Germany bouncing back to life.' Simon Jenkins, author of A Short History of Europe.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49915120124177,"sku":"GOR012029572","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50554686275857,"sku":"GOR013997133","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694020591889,"sku":"CIN1509803289G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1509803289.jpg?v=1750797139"},{"product_id":"lotharingia-book-simon-winder-9781250251169","title":"Lotharingia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFollowing \u003ci\u003eGermania\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDanubia\u003c\/i\u003e, the third installment in Simon Winder's personal history of Europe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In 843 AD, the three surviving grandsons of the great emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. 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In this beguiling, hilarious and compelling book, Simon Winder retraces the various powers that have tried to overtake the land that stretches from the mouth of the Rhine to the Alps and the might of the peoples who have lived there for centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49928004927761,"sku":"CIN1250251168VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50317164511505,"sku":"CIN1250251168G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50379377475857,"sku":"CIN1250251168A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1250251168.jpg?v=1751207840"},{"product_id":"lotharingia-book-simon-winder-9780374192181","title":"Lotharingia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFollowing \u003ci\u003eGermania\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDanubia\u003c\/i\u003e, the third installment in Simon Winder's personal history of Europe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In 843 AD, the three surviving grandsons of the great emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. 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It had only prevailed through the assistance of the two greatest nations on earth; and it now found itself bankrupt, dependent and - despite the efforts of the new Labour reform government - with no discernable future. This feeling prevailed for decades and it still seeps into national life today. The Man Who Saved Britain explores this trauma through a figure who can now be seen as the quintessential British figure of the time, the great necessary invention who provided a palliative of sorts to many millions of people: James Bond. Ian Fleming was an upper-class wastrel who found purpose and excitement in the War, working on spying operations, finding a legitimate glamour and heroism for himself unguessed at before hostilities broke out. For him as so many others, the elation over British survival was more than stifled by the reality of the new British impotence. 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