“Everybody told us it was impossible,” Emmanuel Macron declared on the evening of May 7, 2017, “but they didn’t know France.” A year after his astounding victory against Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Front National, in the second round of the presidential elections, most people in France and beyond are still puzzled about who Macron is and what he stands for.

One personal characteristic that shines through in Revolution Française is what Sophie Pedder describes as Macron’s “rock-solid single-mindedness, mixed with extraordinary self-belief”. This was apparent when at the age of 16 he declared to his teacher, Brigitte Auzière, 25 years his senior, that “whatever happens, I will marry you”. He did, even though she was a married mother of three.

“Macron’s