Richard Cobb , The French and their Revolution (John Murray, UK). A selection of expert essays on the French Revolution, with a personal touch.

Alfred Cobban , A History of Modern France (3 vols: 1715-99, 1799-1871 and 1871-1962; Penguin/Viking). Complete and very readable account of the main political, social and economic strands in French - and inevitably Parisian - history.

Norman Hampson , A Social History of the French Revolution (Routledge). An analysis that concentrates on the personalities involved. Its particular interest lies in the attention it gives to the sans-culottes , the ordinary poor of Paris.

Christopher Hibbert , The French Revolution (Penguin, UK). Good, concise popular history of the period and events. Days of the French Revolution (Quill, US) is a compelling account of the details, complexities, personalities, and events surrounding the French Revolution.

Alistair Horne , How Far from Austerlitz (Macmillan/Griffin). An excellent, modern history of Napoleon, catching him at his zenith and recounting his subsequent demise.

Colin Jones , The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (Cambridge UP). A political and social history of France from prehistoric times to the mid-1990s, concentrating on issues of regionalism, gender, race and class. Good illustrations and a friendly, non-academic writing style.

Lissagaray , Paris Commune (o/p). A highly personal and partisan account of the politics and fighting by a participant. Although Lissagaray himself is reticent about it, history has it that the last solitary Communard on the last barricade - in the rue Ramponneau in Belleville - was in fact himself.

Karl Marx , Surveys from Exile (Penguin); On the Paris Commune (Pathfinder, US). Surveys includes Marx's speeches and articles at the time of the 1848 Revolution and after, including an analysis, riddled with jokes, of Napoleon IlI's rise to power. Paris Commune - more rousing prose - has a history of the Commune by Engels.

Robert Rowell Palmer , Twelve Who Ruled (Princeton UP). Another account of the French Revolution, so readable it is almost entertaining.

Angelo Quattrocchi , Beginning of the End: France, May 1968 (Verso Books). First-hand account of the disobedience of students that sparked the riots of factory workers and finally revolution, from the pen of an Italian journalist stationed in Paris to cover the events as they unfolded.

Paul Webster , Pétain's Crime: The Full Story of French Collaboration in the Holocaust (Papermac/Ivan R. Dee). The fascinating and alarming story of the Vichy regime's more than willing collaboration with the German authorities' campaign to implement the "final solution" in occupied France, and the bravery of those, especially the Communist resistance, who attempted to prevent it. A mass of hitherto unpublished evidence.

Theodore Zeldin , A History of French Passions , 1848-1945 (2 paperback vols; Oxford UP). French history tackled by theme, such as intellect and taste - a good read.