Review
'Winder is perhaps the first to have succeeded in presenting Germany as no less fun that France or Italy and the Germans as a nation of eccentrics very like our own... He excels in a style that he self-deprecatingly calls ''anecdotal facetiousness'' but which manages to convey copious quantities of facts in the most enjoyable way possible.' --Evening Standard
'It's plain that Winder's mind is fizzing with interesting ideas. He can write beautifully, embodying a whole world in a phrase... He finds new angles on familiar subjects... His excitement is beguiling and infectious; he's widely read, good-humoured and - a wonderful asset in writing this book - utterly lacking an axe to sharpen on the subject of the Second World War... There are many pleasures to be savoured in Germania... gems that make Winder's clever, rambunctious work a book to treasure.' --Miranda Seymour, Literary Review
'This book is the chronicle of a passion. It is also an engrossing, informative and hilarious read. He has spun an enthralling weave of travelogue, anecdote and historical mock-epic. What is often most engaging about these encounters is the spectacle of Winder himself. It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with WG Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this. Winder's extravagant mixing of genres allows him to seek historical depth without sacrificing the pleasures of anecdote. There is a serious purpose behind all the playfulness.' --Christopher Clark, Sunday Times
`His rich and broadly chronological history of Germany and its peoples is minutely researched. Interspersed in the narrative, however, are the deliciously opinionated, often hilarious and occasionally vituperative reminiscences of the author's many excursions to Germany and Austria. They make the book. The love-hate nature of his relationship with his subject brings out the best in his writing...It is the kind of knockabout humour that has British readers rolling while Germans smile politely but a little uncomprehendingly... A splendid offering.' --Hugh Mortimer, Financial Times
`Simon Winder peppers his meaty tome with quirky digressions, anecdotes and memories, revealing intriguing insights about Germany, from its cuisine to its architecture, people and history.' --ABTA magazine
`Travelogue and historical narrative are merged in a gloriously free-wheeling narrative of the entire sweep of German history . . . This book is clearly not intended to be the last word on German history. But for any readers wanting a learned, entertaining and lucid introduction to a notoriously complex subject, it should certainly be their first.' --Seven Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph
'This candid, cheerful and idiosyncratic approach to travelogue makes a refreshing change. Whether being stridently critical or puppyishly enthusiastic, Winder is a master of the well-turned phrase or the unexpected insight.' --The Times
`Best to follow Winder on his rambles as you'd follow a favourite uncle who knows lots about lots of apparently random things . . . He is most engaging and sporadically wise . . . Winder's mind is a very agreeable place to go rambling.' --The Scotsman
'Entertaining and informative... Delightful'
--Philip Hensher, The Independent
`A history engaging and infuriating enough to hold us through over 450 pages.' --The Independent
`beautifully written and insightful book . . . It can only be hoped that it will be read by many and that it will be recognised for whit it is: a witty, thought-provoking account of German's various histories, cultures and oddities.'
--Irish Times
'It's plain that Winder's mind is fizzing with interesting ideas. He can write beautifully, embodying a whole world in a phrase... He finds new angles on familiar subjects... His excitement is beguiling and infectious; he's widely read, good-humoured and - a wonderful asset in writing this book - utterly lacking an axe to sharpen on the subject of the Second World War... There are many pleasures to be savoured in Germania... gems that make Winder's clever, rambunctious work a book to treasure.' --Miranda Seymour, Literary Review
'This book is the chronicle of a passion. It is also an engrossing, informative and hilarious read. He has spun an enthralling weave of travelogue, anecdote and historical mock-epic. What is often most engaging about these encounters is the spectacle of Winder himself. It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with WG Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this. Winder's extravagant mixing of genres allows him to seek historical depth without sacrificing the pleasures of anecdote. There is a serious purpose behind all the playfulness.' --Christopher Clark, Sunday Times
`His rich and broadly chronological history of Germany and its peoples is minutely researched. Interspersed in the narrative, however, are the deliciously opinionated, often hilarious and occasionally vituperative reminiscences of the author's many excursions to Germany and Austria. They make the book. The love-hate nature of his relationship with his subject brings out the best in his writing...It is the kind of knockabout humour that has British readers rolling while Germans smile politely but a little uncomprehendingly... A splendid offering.' --Hugh Mortimer, Financial Times
`Simon Winder peppers his meaty tome with quirky digressions, anecdotes and memories, revealing intriguing insights about Germany, from its cuisine to its architecture, people and history.' --ABTA magazine
`Travelogue and historical narrative are merged in a gloriously free-wheeling narrative of the entire sweep of German history . . . This book is clearly not intended to be the last word on German history. But for any readers wanting a learned, entertaining and lucid introduction to a notoriously complex subject, it should certainly be their first.' --Seven Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph
'This candid, cheerful and idiosyncratic approach to travelogue makes a refreshing change. Whether being stridently critical or puppyishly enthusiastic, Winder is a master of the well-turned phrase or the unexpected insight.' --The Times
`Best to follow Winder on his rambles as you'd follow a favourite uncle who knows lots about lots of apparently random things . . . He is most engaging and sporadically wise . . . Winder's mind is a very agreeable place to go rambling.' --The Scotsman
'Entertaining and informative... Delightful'
--Philip Hensher, The Independent
`A history engaging and infuriating enough to hold us through over 450 pages.' --The Independent
`beautifully written and insightful book . . . It can only be hoped that it will be read by many and that it will be recognised for whit it is: a witty, thought-provoking account of German's various histories, cultures and oddities.'
--Irish Times
Product Description
An often eccentric, always entertaining guide to the history and the hidden wonders of Germany
Book Description
Simon Winder is mesmerized Germany; its cuisine, its architecture, its fairytale landscape. He is equally passionate about the region’s history, its folklore, its monarchs and its changing borders. Winder describes Germany’s past afresh, taking in the story from the shaggy world of the ancient forests right through to the Nazis’ catastrophic rise in the 1930s, in an accessible and startlingly vivid account of a tortured but also brilliant country. Germania is also a very personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. It is a map of the obsession that he has nurtured through many years of visiting the country. With a delightfully dry, self-deprecating wit, he explains the origins of his crazed love affair with a country which has at different times revealed the best and the worst aspects of Europe’s culture. England and Germany, Winder suggests, are the mad twins of Europe, Protestant, aggressive, committed to eating some very peculiar food and with superiority complexes of a kind that have, for good and ill, reshaped the world. Germania is a rollicking account, replete with enlightening digressions, anecdotes and memories. Often eccentric, always entertaining, Winder is an enthusiastic guide to the hidden wonders of Germany.
About the Author
Simon Winder is the author of The Man Who Saved Britain. He lives in London and works in publishing.
