In 2018, the Paris-based British historian Andrew Hussey was caught up in a riot while cycling in Paris, said Kim Willsher in The Observer . As he dodged chunks of paving stone and other missiles, and felt tear gas scorching his eyes, Hussey – “in his early 60s with a heart condition” – became fearful for his life.

Yet he was struck by something else: the protesters were mostly “respectable looking” and middle-aged. How could it be that such “outwardly ordinary” people had such visceral hatred of the police? And what did it say about France? To find out, Hussey set out on a journey across the country, from the “working-class post-industrial” towns of the north to the Mediterranean port of Marseille, where around a third of the population are of Muslim origin.

The result, “Fractured Fra

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