LOTHARINGIA: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country

Diarmaid MacCulloch wrote of this, 'Lotharingia is a splurge of geographical toothpaste squeezed by modern France and Germany: a sensible piece of conflict management in the early days of the Holy Roman Empire, but now spewing over our modern boundaries in order to annoy those who idolise nation-states. Winder is our guide with delicious festive wit, and equal erudition.' At a time of exasperation and hostility over Brexit, we could do no worse than to read this deft and gentle guide to the Franco-Dutch-German borderlands, which at various times have been the epicentre of major conflicts. Winder has created a genre of his own, a history-travelogue-memoir, a heady blend of jolly travel stories, weird German aristocrats, obscure baroque altarpieces and horrendous sectarian massacres. The last in a trilogy, this massive book is highly entertaining and may be read alone. 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 - they are inhabitants of a lost part of Europe - Lotharingia. In AD843, the three surviving grandsons of the great Emperor Charlamagne met at Verdun. After years of bitter squabbles they finally decided to divide the territory and go their separate ways. In a moment of staggering significance, one grandson inherited what would become France, another Germany, and the third Lotharingia or 'The Lands of Lothar'. This splendid history of this in-between land is also Simon Winder's personal exploration and he has produced a beguiling, hilarious and compelling book. 504pp in large softback with maps and double page illustrations.