Rod Kedward has spent much of his career studying Occupied France and the Resistance, and is the author of the remarkable Resistance in Vichy France and In Search of the Maquis, which won the Philippe Viannay Prize in France. He has also written books on the Drewfus Affair, Fascism in western Europe and the Anarchists. He has been honored by the University of Sussex, where he is now Emeritus Professor.

La Vie en Bleu is a highly entertaining history of a nation and its people, and a compelling exploration of what it is to be French.

Rod Kedward tells the story of France since 1900, from the great events of its history - the two cataclysmic World Wars it endured, the disastrous events in Algeria and the revolt of 1968 - to the multitude of personal stories of the French people and the very different worlds of its countryside and great cities. Definitive and provocative, this is a rich story of profound change and continuity, contrasts and passion.