This sparkling book was first published in France in 2005 and has been magnificently translated into English by the food writer and historian Giles MacDonogh. It is part cookery book, part dictionary and part cultural study of testicles: human and animal. Their culinary use is the bedrock, although it would be impossible to ignore the wider implications of these anatomical jewels. Blandine Vie has a delicious way with words, and delight in exploring the furthest corners of our vocabulary, both scurrilous and euphemistic. The book opens with a discussion of balls, of pairs, of virility and the general significance thereof; it then delves more deeply into the culinary use of testicles, in history and across cultures; there follows a recipe section that ranges the continents in search of good dishes, from lamb's fry with mushrooms, to balls with citrus fruit, to the criadillas beloved of bullfighters, and Potatoes Leontine, stuffed with cocks' stones. (There are, however, no recipes for cannibals.) To close, there is an extensive dictionary or glossary, drawing on many languages, which illustrates the linguistic richness that attaches to this part of the body. It is in this section particularly that the ingenuity and intelligence of the translator is on display as he converts the French original into something entirely accessible to the English reader.

The first full and authoritative biography of the father of gastronomy. MacDonogh not only chronicles Brillat's many pursuits, he also presents a fascinating picture of provincial France under the ancient regime and the dangerous years that followed its fall. The world of revolutionaries and gourmets explored with elegance and scholarship.--Observer

After the Second World War, Germany was an international pariah. Today, it has become a beacon of the Western world. But what makes this extraordinary nation tick? On Germany tells the story of a country reborn, from defeat in 1945 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the painstaking reunification of 'the two Germanies', and the Republic's return to the world stage as an economic colossus and European leader. Giles MacDonogh restores these momentous events of world history to their German context, from the food and drink that accompanied them to the deep-rooted provincialism behind the national story. Full of vivid and often whimsical vignettes of German life, this is a Germanophile's homage to the culture and people of a country he has known for decades.

In 1945 Germany was a nation in tatters. Swathes of its population were despairing, homeless, bombed-out and on the move. Refugees streamed towards the West and soldiers made their way home, often scarring the villages they passed through with parting shots of savagery. Politically the country was neutered, carved into zones of occupation. While Britain and America were loathe to repeat the crippling reparations demands of the First World War, Russia bayed for blood, stripping their own zone of everything from rail tracks to lavatory bowls. After the Reich is the first history to give the full picture of Germany's bitter journey to reconstruction. Giles Macdonogh expertly charts the varied experiences of all who found themselves in the German melting pot. His people-focused narrative unveils shocking truths about how people continued to treat each other, even outside the confines of war. It is a crucial lesson for our times.

The Third Reich came of age in 1938. Hitler began the year as the leader of a right-wing coalition and ended it as the sole master of a belligerent nation. Until 1938 Hitler could be dismissed as a ruthless but efficient dictator, a problem for Germany alone; after 1938 he was a threat to the whole of Europe and had set the world on a path toward cataclysmic war. Using previously unseen archival material, acclaimed historian Giles MacDonogh breathtakingly chronicles Adolf Hitler's rise to international infamy over the course of this single year.

Military conflict has had a decisive influence in shaping our world. The Great Battles is a superbly produced introduction to those clashes that have altered the course of history. Each battle is treated to a concise narrative essay, and illustrated throughout with informative and elegant maps showing location, troop movements and topographical details. Battles covered include: Meggido (1500BC); Thermopylae (480BC); Salamis (480BC); Peloponnese campaigns (431-404BC); Chaeronea (338BC); Cannae (216BC); Pharsalus (48BC); Teutoburg Forest (9AD); Sack of Rome (410); Catalaunian Plains (451); Hastings (1066); Antioch (1098); Poitiers (1356); Agincourt (1415); Siege of Orleans (1429); Golden Horn (1453); Battle of Nieuport (1600); Lutter am Barenberg (1626); Breitenfeld (1631); Marston Moor (1644); Blenheim (1704); Ramillies (1706); Laufeldt (1747); Plassey (1757); Leuthen (1757); Quebec (1759); Austerlitz (1805); Auerstadt (1808); Borodino (1812); Waterloo (1815); Calatafimi (1860); Shenandoah (1862); Chancellorsville (1863); Gettysburg (1863); Vicksburg (1863); Konigratz (1866); Tel-el-Kebir (1882); Tannenberg (1914); Anzac Cove (1915); Verdun (1916); Nazi invasion of France (1940); Moscow (1941); Singapore (1942); El Alamein (1942); Stalingrad (1942-43); Korsun-Shevchevsky Pocket (1944); D-Day (1944); Philippines (1944); Dien Bien Phu (1954); Sinai (1956).

Piet and soldier, misanthrope and philospher, Frederick the Great was a contradictory, almost unfathomable man. His conquests made him one of the most formindable and feared leaders of his era. But as a patron of artists and intellectuals, Frederick re-created Berlin as one of the continent's great cities, matching his state's reputation for military ferocity with one for cultural achievement.
Though history remembers Frederick as a "Potsdam Fuhrer," his father more rightly deserved the title. When, as a youth, Frederick attempted to flee the elder man's brutality, the punishment was to watch the execution of his friend and co-conspirator, Katte. Though a subsequent compromise allowed Frederick to take the throne in 1740, he would remain true unto himself. His tastes for music, poetry, and architecture would match the significance of his military triumphs in the Seven Years' War.
Drawing on the most recent scholarship, Giles MacDonogh's fresh, authoritative biograhy gives us the most fully rounded portrait yet of an often misunderstood king.