After a nomadic childhood in America, Canada and the UK, Jonathan Miles has been travelling ever since and currently lives in Paris. Having taken a first from University College, London, he received his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. Early books include studies of British artists Eric Gill and David Jones. Most recently, Medusa: The Shipwreck, the Scandal and the Masterpiece, Nine Lives of Otto Katz and St Petersburg: Three Centuries of Murderous Desire were all published to international acclaim.

Jonathan Miles's evocation of the French Riviera is as fascinating in its historical sweep as its devotion to gossip and misbehaviour... Once Upon A Time World is a phenomenal work of research across hundreds of histories, biographies, memoirs and letters. It shifts with masterly control across a dozen arenas, from high art to low scandal, taking in fashion, sport, ballet and motor racing. It's utterly absorbing, indelicate to a shocking degree and I devoured every page of it.

• Preface: The Voices of Paradise 1: Jagged, Tormented and Tiny 2: This 'Wild and Tremendous Region of the Globe' 3: 'Bathing in Sunshine', 1835-60 4: A Welcome to the World, 1860-90 5: The Belle Époque, 1890-1914 6: Painting the Warmth of the Sun 7: The First World War, 1914-18 8: 'The British-American Riviera Colony', 1922-9 9: Losing Paradise, 1930-9 10: Refugees and Resistance, 1939-45 11: Glitz, 1945-60 12: Sunny But Shady, 1960-90 13: White, Concrete Coast, 1990-2023

After a nomadic childhood in America, Canada and the UK, Jonathan Miles has been travelling ever since and currently lives in Paris. Having taken a first from University College, London, he received his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. Early books include studies of British artists Eric Gill and David Jones. Most recently, Medusa: The Shipwreck, the Scandal and the Masterpiece, Nine Lives of Otto Katz and St Petersburg: Three Centuries of Murderous Desire were all published to international acclaim.

Jonathan Miles's evocation of the French Riviera is as fascinating in its historical sweep as its devotion to gossip and misbehaviour... Once Upon A Time World is a phenomenal work of research across hundreds of histories, biographies, memoirs and letters. It shifts with masterly control across a dozen arenas, from high art to low scandal, taking in fashion, sport, ballet and motor racing. It's utterly absorbing, indelicate to a shocking degree and I devoured every page of it.

• Preface: The Voices of Paradise 1: Jagged, Tormented and Tiny 2: This 'Wild and Tremendous Region of the Globe' 3: 'Bathing in Sunshine', 1835-60 4: A Welcome to the World, 1860-90 5: The Belle Époque, 1890-1914 6: Painting the Warmth of the Sun 7: The First World War, 1914-18 8: 'The British-American Riviera Colony', 1922-9 9: Losing Paradise, 1930-9 10: Refugees and Resistance, 1939-45 11: Glitz, 1945-60 12: Sunny But Shady, 1960-90 13: White, Concrete Coast, 1990-2023