The 'corrections' to the French interpretation of events were often amusing and enlightening, but I began to wonder how biased the 'factual' corrections were. Stephen Clarke takes a penetrating look into those murky depths, guiding us through all the times when Britain and France have been at war - or at least glowering at each other.

I mean, like half the countries in the world right now have an independence day to celebrate their independence from the British. But it is not thoughtless bashing, Clarke's book actually hits upon an interesting topic: the way national identities are constructed and how historical events are greatly distorted in that process. Edith Piaf and Coco Chanel: both were pro Nazi (to add to the fun, on page 448 the Wehrmacht troops are depicted whistling “Non Rien de Rien”, a song that has only been written in 1960 by Charles Dumont.

During the Falklands War for example, the right wing press in the UK insisted that the French were helping Argentina because the equipment used in the invasion had been sold to them by the French.

But exactly the same thing can be said about the French and the all English-speakers – no matter what we try to do in the present, the past will always march up and slap us in the face.

This was a humorous and yet seriously edifying romp through Anglo-Gallic relations from the time of the conquest until a few years ago. the French military trained British secret services in how to disable Exocets and 3) they loaned our military several aircraft to learn how to work against them. We laught at (while, in may case, loving beyond most others)their hoity-toity food and wine supping ways; they, in turn, are noted as ridiculing our stodgy, bland, unimaginative menus and beer swillinh culture.

The chapters come with delightful sub-headings, such as "In India and Tahiti: France Gets Lost In Paradise: A selection of historical Frenchmen lose India, fail to notice Australia and give sexually transmitted diseases to Pacific islanders" and "How Britain Killed Off the Last French Royals: And the Victorians said, 'It was an accident, honest. Also, they've always been hospitable too when I've socialised with them except maybe in Marseille so I can't berate them for much. Starting with William the Conqueror (who, contrary to what the French might claim, wasn't French at all, and died fighting the Paris-based King of the Franks) and going right up to the horrendous diplomatic gaffes inflicted on recent French presidents, I have sifted through our common history for tellable tales, and kept only the juiciest nuggets.But there’s only a handful of sentences mentioning that the British were there to fill their pockets too. While I did know about some periods of the 1000 years it was covering, I wasn't an expert enough to critique the information it provided in the book so I can't comment on the accuracy.