The Scandinavians are regarded as Europe`s most tolerant & peace-loving people. So how was it that one of the worst acts of political terror ever witnessed on this continent was committed by a Norwegian
- against his fellow countrymen? Scandinavia is the epitome of cool: we fill our homes with cheap but stylish Nordic furniture; we envy their health-giving outdoor lifestyle; we glut ourselves on their crime fiction; even their strangely attractive melancholia seems to express a stoic, common-sensical acceptance of life`s many vicissitudes. But how valid is this outsider`s view of Scandinavia, & how accurate our picture of life in Scandinavia today? Robert Ferguson digs down through two millennia of history to tell stories of extraordinary events, people & objects
- from Norwegian Death Metal to Vidkun Quisling, from Agnetha Faltskog to Greta Garbo, from Lurpak butter to the Old Norse rune stones
- that richly illuminate our understanding of modern Scandinavia, its society, politics, culture & temperament.