For centuries much of Europe was in the hands of the very peculiar Habsburg family.
An unstable mixture of wizards, obsessives, melancholics, bores, musicians and warriors, they saw off – through luck, guile and sheer mulishness – any number of rivals, until finally packing up in 1918.
From their principal lairs along the Danube they ruled most of Central Europe and Germany and interfered everywhere – indeed the history of Europe hardly makes sense without them.
Danubia plunges the reader into a maelstrom of alchemy, skeletons, jewels, bear-moats, unfortunate marriages and a guinea-pig village.
Full of music, piracy, religion and fighting, it is the history of a dynasty, but it is at least as much about the people they ruled, who spoke many different languages, lived in a vast range of landscapes, believed in many rival gods and often showed a marked ingratitude towards their oddball ruler in Vienna.
‘Funny, erudite, frequently irritating…and never boring’ – Sarah Bakewell, Financial Times
‘An excellent, rich and amusing read’ – The Times, Book of the Week
Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
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