A SPECTATOR and PROSPECT Book of 2022 'Ceaselessly interesting, knowledgeable and evocative' Spectator 'A fresh way to write history' Alan Johnson 'A quirky, amused, erudite homage to France . . . ambitious and original' The Times _____ Original, knowledgeable and endlessly entertaining, France: An Adventure History is an unforgettable journey through France from the first century BC to the present day. Drawn from countless new discoveries and thirty years of exploring France on foot, in the library and across 30,000 miles on the author's beloved bike, it begins with Gaulish and Roman times and ends in the age of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, the Gilets Jaunes and Covid-19. From the plains of Provence to the slums and boulevards of Paris, events and themes of French history may be familiar - Louis XIV, the French Revolution, the French Resistance, the Tour de France - but all are presented in a shining new light. Frequently hilarious, always surprising, France: An Adventure History is a sweeping panorama of France, teeming with characters, stories and coincidences, and offering a thrilling sense of discovery and enlightenment. This vivid, living history of one of the world's most fascinating nations will make even seasoned Francophiles wonder if they really know that terra incognita which is currently referred to as 'France'. _____ 'Packed full of discoveries' The Sunday Times 'A gorgeous tapestry of insights, stories and surprises' Fintan O'Toole 'A rich and vibrant narrative . . . clear-eyed but imaginative storytelling' Financial Times 'Full of life' Prospect

ON THE NIGHT TRAINS, THE LAST STOP WAS ALWAYS HELL.

The price exacted from across the African subcontinent for South Africa's stalled 20th-century industrial revolution is, in human terms, still largely hidden from history. For half a century, up to the mid-1950s, privately operated trains travelled by night between Ressano Garcia, on the Mozambique border, and Booysens station, in Johannesburg. The night trains carried Mozambicans recruited to work in the mines of the booming Witwatersrand. The up-trains disgorged their human cargo into the maw of the great Rand mining machine, while the down-trains whisked away the time-expired miners - often ill, broken or insane, and preyed on by con men, petty criminals and corrupt officials. While mine labour was recruited from all over southern Africa, Mozambican migrants made up the largest component, and they paid the highest price.

Charles van Onselen clinically reconstructs the world of the night trains, which were run as a partnership between the mining houses and the railways. By tracing the up and down rail journeys undertaken by black migrants over half a century it is possible to discern how racial thinking, expressed logistically, reflected South Africa's evolving systems of segregation and apartheid. Mirroring the brutal logic of industrial capitalism, this was a system of transport designed to maximise profit at the expense of the health, well-being and even the lives of those it conveyed.

The story of the night trains echoes today through songs such as 'Stimela' and 'Shosholoza'. But the experience of the poverty-stricken Mozambicans who travelled on the trains has never been told. THE NIGHT TRAINS lays bare this hellish world.

Robben Island is a low-lying outcrop of rock and sand guarding the entrance to South Africa's Table Bay. Although it is just a few kilometres long and a barely swimmable distance from Cape Town, it may well be the most significant historical site in South Africa today.;Paradoxically it symbolises both the repressiveness of the apartheid state and the strength of those who opposed it. While interpretations of the island's history have focused mainly on its role as political prison and on the well-known prisoners held there, such as Nelson Mandela, the island has been put to many and varied uses over the last 500 years: as pantry, hospital, mental asylum, military camp as well as prison. In spite of these various roles there are continuities in its history. Above all, the island has served mainly as repository for those who were considered dangerous to the South African social order. A history of the island provides therefore an off-shore echo of the history of the mainland.