"An engrossing portrait" Independent

Based on a lifetime living in and reporting on Germany and Central Europe, award-winning journalist and author Peter Millar tackles the fascinating and complex story of the people at the heart of our continent.

Focussing on nine cities (only six of which are in the Germany of today) he takes us on a zigzag ride back through time via the fall of the Berlin Wall through the horrors of two world wars, the patchwork states of the Middle Ages, to the splendour of Charlemagne and the fall of Rome, with side swipes at everything on the way, from Henry VIII to the Spanish Empire.

Included are mini portraits of aspects of German culture from sex and money to food and drink. Not just a book about Germany but about Europe as a whole and how we got where we are today, and where we might be tomorrow.

"From the first page you know that Peter Millar knows his territory well, and has found real tales to tell" The Times

[This] engrossing portrait of German culture covers everything from sex and money to food and drink. -- Martin Chilton * Independent *
From the first page of his new book, you know that Peter Millar knows his territory well, and has found real tales to tell. This is "not a traditional linear history" of Germany, but "a personal frontline" tour, organised by place and topic, and held together by anecdote and lived experience. -- James Hawes * The Times *

Peter Millar was an award-winning Northern Irish journalist, author and translator, and was a correspondent for Reuters, Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph. He was named Foreign Correspondent of the Year for his reporting on the dying stages of the Cold War, his account of which - 1989: The Berlin Wall, My Part in its Downfall - was named 'best read' by The Economist.