pumpkinstrokemarrow

I have also finished the book called 'Germania' by Simon Winder, the chap responsible for the picture of 10th March. A very entertaining read; a sort of history of Germany, Germans and things Germanic from the very beginning. Crammed with all sorts of fascinating trivia which has left me keen to spend some quality time cruising around the place, my experience so far being limited to an afternoon's stroll across the bridge at Echternach and a very important jolly to Berlin.

Despite being a good read, I did have two problems. The first was that the author is not a professional writer and his jokey prose and repetitions grate after a while (maybe a kettle and pot problem lurking here). The second was that one did not get a proper sense of how the author came by the material - beyond a rather disquieting suggestion in the bibliography that he made extensive use of various editions of the 'Rough Guide to Germany'. It is not at all clear how much German he has. I would have preferred the book to have been properly framed: it is a personal book not a product of academe and he should have been properly placed in it. As it is I am left feeling that the thing might be a bit of a swiz.

If the book is a success, perhaps the author, being in the book trade, will be able to wangle a picture book version. The sort of thing which Thames & Hudson are quite good at. There are a few pictures in the present book, unlabelled in half tone, but the material cries out for the Thames & Hudson treatment. Or perhaps the history of Germany in a hundred objects.

My problem now is to source a proper history book in English covering the same sort of ground. Is there such a thing? I don't know of any modern, one volume history of any of England, Great Britain, the three kingdoms or the British Isles (inc. the Îles Normandes). And their version of the Oxford History of England presumably does not come in English translation. Probably a bit long for my purposes anyway.

PS: a little late in the day I was pointed to http://www.hoeckmann.de. A site containing splendid maps of the baroque complications of the old German geographical scene. I was also pointed to a splendid film called the 'Scarlet Empress', a German flavoured film from the early 30's in which Marlene Dietrich has the interesting assignment of presenting 18th century Russians as being both barbarians and Germans - the Russian upper reaches of the time being heavily infiltrated with Germans. Great fun.