“... vraie barbarie’)? The first view is that of the candidate for Les Républicains, François Fillon, speaking last summer, shortly before Emmanuel Macron, who took the second view, resigned as minister for the economy. Macron is now running as an independent, at the head of his centrist movement, En Marche! – a pessimist’s translation would ...”

“... exploits in Libreville, where he cruised the town in a pink Rolls Royce, sometimes accompanied by François Mitterrand’s eldest son, Jean-Christophe, then in charge of Africa at the Elysée. ‘Our interests would be better served if someone more competent, with fewer genetic links to the old regime, were to take over in Gabon,’ a French minister ...”

“... Marche! candidate, on the grounds that he is ‘anti-family’. LMPT followers have not forgiven François Hollande for signing in a same-sex marriage law in 2013. Macron seems to them, with some justice, to be the dark successor of the outgoing president. Before he was unveiled to the public as a minister, he was cultivated in vitro at the Elysée in an ...”

“... inventing new ones. By contrast, post-Gaullist France has carried the torch diffidently if at all. Mitterrand has made a few celebratory gestures, but parts of the Invalides are visibly crumbling and it will be interesting to see what the French do with Napoleon when they commemorate the Revolution in 1989. What current French historians do with the Napoleonic ...”

“... Indeed, in the 1980s Tony’s essentially social-democratic liberalism was briefly infected by François Furet’s Hayekian economic libertarianism. I don’t think this late Cold War afterglow was central to Tony’s development, but it helped to give more body and depth to his very impressive Postwar. His progress through the second half of the century ...”

“... gripping events of her life, remains frustratingly opaque. Yes, there’s a French biography – François Leperlier’s Claude Cahun: L’Ecart et la métamorphose (1992). But if you don’t know it Cahun’s renegade life and art are likely to seem alienating, even incoherent. Unlike similar figures from the period, she hasn’t, so far, acquired a context ...”

“... What, for example, is the significance of politicians living on the Left Bank? President Mitterrand lives in the Rue de Bièvre, just off the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Quais; the former Prime Minister, the Gaullist Michel Debré, lives in the Rue Jacob, just off the Rue Bonaparte and St Germain des Près. Both live in the essential Left ...”

“... to hunt down, is described as a protégé of the then ‘president of the French Republic’ – Mitterrand. The cowed and intermittently sadistic daughter, who experienced none of the primal events, is fighting a hopeless battle against her mother’s foul-mouthed energy, vivid memories and persuasive hallucinations: these are to be her inescapable ...”

“... to imagine them not knowing each other, and easy to forget how unlikely their partnership was. François Dosse begins his biography of the two men with their first encounter, a year after the ‘events’ of 1968, which, more than anything, inspired their collaboration.Guattari was not quite 40 when he drove to the Limousin to meet Deleuze for the first ...”

“... and revolution are sublime forms of self-expression. At the head of this parade is the rogue poet François Villon, imprisoned in the Châtelet in 1462; on the last float, the heroines from Jacques Rivette’s 1981 movie, Le Pont du Nord, are waving goodbye, along with the two keynote Situationists, Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. The Other Paris is also an ...”

“... public sector was vital to republican values. Not everyone agreed. After Jacques Chirac succeeded Mitterrand in 1995, he and his prime minister, Alain Juppé, tried to reform civil service pensions and triggered the most impressive round of strikes in France since 1968. For nearly three weeks large parts of the country were at a standstill. Private sector ...”

“... But its role in the slow post-colonial reconfiguration of Africa may no longer be critical. During Mitterrand’s fourteen-year presidency, high-level military interventions came thick and fast in former French colonies. Mitterrand damaged France’s diplomatic reputation in Africa – and elsewhere – by aligning with the ...”

“... her. In Manina, la fille sans voiles (1953), Gérard, a venal young archaeology student (Jean-François Calvé), is searching for sunken treasure off Corsica. He’s not nearly as compelling as the villain – a cigarette smuggler played by Howard Vernon – until he falls for Manina, whereupon a grand baring of souls and bodies follows, with lengthy ...”

“... most – though not all – identified with historic provinces of the country, endowed since Mitterrand with considerable autonomy in their jurisdictions, but every city enjoys a directly elected mayor, who by reason of the cumul des mandats can play a role on the national stage at the same time. The roll-call of politicians who have occupied or ...”

“... is the largest increase since the 1981 presidential campaign – 3.7 per cent — which brought Mitterrand to power. The Ministry of the Interior, lately the domain of the right-wing candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, has announced that the figure is normal, but a glance at percentage rises in the electorate in 1988 (1.9 per cent), 1995 (2.1 per cent) and 2002 ...”