History of Provence and the French Riviera by Jim Ring

I ummed and aahed about Jim Ring's book. I bought it a while back and a) it took me time to get round to it and b) to get into it. It's 225 pages (in hardback), well written and engaging. It never got me gripped. On balance, though, I think it's worth a read if you want a manageable, digestible socio-historical context to the Riviera, especially from a British perspective. It reads a bit like a Sunday Times article, neatly chronologically organised and with plenty of anecdotes about people we've all heard of.

You can buy Jim Ring's Riviera on Amazon