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Normandy can be said to have begun in 911 with the treaty of St.Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and the viking Rollo. Charles ceded land to Rollo for his promise to defend Francia from other invading vikings. There had been, we are taught, a Carolingian count still in Rouen in 905. We can therefore assume that “Rollo could have received almost from the hands of his predecessor certain traditions of Frankish administration,” and was “the new count.” There was still, so the picture has it, a bishop at Coutances in 906. By 933 Normandy had already taken its shape, by means of other grants made in good faith by the Frankish kings, Charles the Simple and Raoul. From that time on, and certainly from 940, one ruler, a Carolingian count of, perhaps, little Norse blood himself, and whose people were becoming rapidly gallicized, ruled the ancient pagi from the Pays de Caux to the Couesnon. In a word: “continuity,” though under different management.

But there is another possible reconstruction of the beginning of Normandy. If we intertwine the internal politics of northern Francia with the supposed cession of Normandy to Rollo and his successors, it is possible that the story looks a more complicated one than that of continuity.

Source: Frankish Rivalries and Norse Warriors – Medievalists.net

In Edinburgh, a couple, Rabih and Kirsten, fall in love. They get married, they have children. But no relationship is as simple as “happily ever after”. The Course of Love is a novel that explores what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain love, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence. With philosophical insight and psychological acumen, Alain de Botton shows that our Romantic dreams may do us a grave disservice and explores what the alternatives might be.

The conclusion, as the characters gradually discover, is that love is not “an enthusiasm”, but rather a “skill” that must be slowly and often painfully learnt.

This is a Romantic novel in the true sense, one interested in exploring how love can survive and thrive in the long term.

“a master of philosophical social criticism through an eloquent blend of wit and wisdom” The Atlantic

Alain de Botton is the author of essays on themes ranging from love and travel to architecture and philosophy. His bestselling books include How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Art of Travel, and The Architecture of Happiness. He lives in London, where he is the founder and chairman of The School of Life and the creative director of Living Architecture.

The Architecture of Happiness is a dazzling and generously illustrated journey through the philosophy and psychology of architecture and the indelible connection between our identities and our locations.

One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings, and streets that surround us. And yet a concern for architecture is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent.

Alain de Botton starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be, and argues that it is architecture’s task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.