Vive La Revolution

For most of us, the French Revolution has been reduced to jokes about Marie-Antoinette, guillotines and the Scarlet Pimpernel. But for Mark Steel the French Revolution was one of the most inspirational moments in human history – a moment when ordinary people changed the world and became extraordinary. It deserves better jokes than that. In this revolutionary new book, Steel banishes stuffiness from history, telling us what happened in France between the storming of the Bastille and the rise of Napoleon. VIVE LA REVOLUTION is an uproariously serious work of history – brilliantly funny and insightful, it puts the peculiarity of individual people back at the centre of the story.