Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.

Mr Robb has written an enthralling book – one of the great biographies of our time. He contrives not to be dwarfed by his subject, which is some contrivance. He makes of Hugo’s life a story as exciting to read as it was extraordinary to have lived. He has a matchless gift for narrative. His style is epigrammatic and compelling. His judgements seem fair – not something Hugo was used to in life. Every Place Victor Hugo should now have a Café-Bar Graham Robb. He deserves, and will probably get, the Légion d’honneur.

Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.

Mr Robb has written an enthralling book – one of the great biographies of our time. He contrives not to be dwarfed by his subject, which is some contrivance. He makes of Hugo’s life a story as exciting to read as it was extraordinary to have lived. He has a matchless gift for narrative. His style is epigrammatic and compelling. His judgements seem fair – not something Hugo was used to in life. Every Place Victor Hugo should now have a Café-Bar Graham Robb. He deserves, and will probably get, the Légion d’honneur.