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Springtime for Germany
How I Came to Love Germany (and Lederhosen)
- Author: Ben Donald
- Category: Non-fiction
- Publisher: Little, Brown
- Pub date: 14 June 2007
- Length: 320 pages
About Springtime for Germany
In the twenty-first century, Germany still labours under so many prejudices that it is the last place many English people would consider going on holiday. Yet the country is vast, beautiful and largely unknown outside its commercial centres. And the Germans themselves are funnier, more disorganized and more passionate than most people believe. Aside from the Rough Guide, a few city guides and dense cultural histories there is nothing on Germany in our travel sections, and certainly nothing light-hearted and idyllic. How much more zeitgeist could it be to write a book giving a humorous but ultimately positive face-lift for this nation at the heart of Europe? A Toujours Deutschland that lies midway in the market between Peter Mayle and Alain de Botton…?
About the Author
Ben Donald lives with his wife and child in West London and is in charge of television and book rights at BBC Worldwide. His earlier life is more relevant, however, for he moved to Germany at the age of three. Ben went on to study German and German literature, among other languages, at school and university in England, and claims that it was at Cambridge that his youthful idealism found a mirror in the writings of the great German thinkers. Fluent in German, French and Italian, he also succumbed during his student days to an irrepressible wanderlust which, in turn, led him to write occasional travel pieces for The Times as well as three guidebooks (BOLOGNA, Footprint, 2002; TURIN, Footprint, 2004; MILAN, Cadogan) and also to co-author with Phil Dodd THE BOOK OF CITIES (Pavilion, 2004).