Author Patricia Nicol reveals a selection of the best books on: Revolution

They do love a ruck, the French. The first sign of a violation of their rights and they take to the boulevards.

Most recently, the nation has been protesting against a proposed increase in the pension age from 62 to 64. This is still lower than in most industrialised countries — it is 66 here.

J’adore France, the French and their obdurate willingness to say ‘non’. Collective protest seems more part of their DNA than our ‘mustn’t grumble’ (when doing exactly that) approach.

And over the centuries, it has proven pretty effective for them: in 1789 they overthrew a monarch, in 1968 they brought the government to the negotiating table and, in recent years, the gilets jaunes have put the frighteners on the Parisian establishment.

Protests also run through French literature and British historical novels set in France. One of the greatest of all classic French novels, Germinal, is about a miners’ strike.

The French revolution is, of course, the backdrop to Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel series.

But as a reader, the historical novel that most swept me along in that torrid period’s high-stakes politics is Hilary Mantel’s A Place Of Greater Safety.

It meticulously reimagines the backgrounds and lives of revolutionary leaders Georges Danton, Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, but also lesser, influential figures, like Lucile Desmoulins.

But as a reader, the historical novel that most swept me along in that torrid period’s high-stakes politics is Hilary Mantel’s A Place Of Greater Safety

Gilbert Adair’s The Dreamers — originally published as The Holy Innocents — is the story of three young Parisian cinephiles who become an incestuous ménage à trois just as the May 1968 protests ignite

Another big beast of a novel, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables begins its story in 1815. Its action culminates with the anti-Orléanist protests of June 1832 and their fallout, which forms a political backdrop to its human drama.

Gilbert Adair’s The Dreamers — originally published as The Holy Innocents — is the story of three young Parisian cinephiles who become an incestuous ménage à trois just as the May 1968 protests ignite.

Be an armchair revolutionary with one of these.