Lotharingia

A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country

By: Simon Winder

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

Following Germania and Danubia, the third installment in Simon Winder's personal history of Europe.

In 843 AD, 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 the area we now know as France, another Germany, and the third received the piece in between: Lotharingia.

Lotharingia is a history of in-between Europe. It is the story of a place between places. 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.

©2019 Simon Winder (P)2019 Tantor

Great writing but bad narrator

I loved Danubia and have already purchased Germania. The content of Lotharingia is excellent but the Narrator has a raspy smoker's voice that is often unpleasant. He sounds like Marge Simpson with advanced COPD.

A Wonderful Book, Author and Narration!

Meticulously researched, beautifully written with hundreds of relevant historical stitchings between very old times and the very new. Simon Winder has sewn a gorgeous tapestry that includes a brisk pace, detail and humour!

Wonderful fun!

I normally look for straight ahead historical works, but this was a delightful diversion. Brilliantly witty and engaging.

New narrator

This one is probably the weakest of the trilogy, but it is still very good in my opinion. One complaint - the excellent narrator from the first two books isn’t back for this one, and the new guy isn’t nearly as good.

Witty, informative and entertaining

Brilliant mixture of wit, history and stories based around the geography of 'the middle bit' of Charlemagnes empire. A whirlwind tour from prehistory to the 20th century with enough detail to be informative, and entertainingly delivered.