Chronicling two-hundred years of glamour,hedonism and crimethis rich and vivid history of the French Riviera features a vast cast of charactersfrom Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel to Andre Matisse and James Baldwin. 1835Lord Brougham founded Cannesintroducing bathing and the manicured lawn to the wilds of the Mediterranean coast. Todaymuch of that shore has become a concrete mass from which escape is an exclusive dream. In the 185 years betweenthe stretch of seaboard from the red mountains of the Esterel to the Italian border hosted a cultural phenomenon well in excess of its tiny size. A mere handful of towns and resorts created by foreign visitors – notably EnglishRussian and American – attracted the talentedrich and famous as well as those who wanted to be. For nearly two centuries of creativityluxuryexcessscandalwar and corruptionthe dark and sparkling world of the Riviera was a temptation for everybody who was anybody. Often frivolousit was also a potent cultural matrix that inspired the likes of PicassoMatisseCoco ChanelScott FitzgeraldCole PorterJames BaldwinCatherine MansfieldSartre and Stravinsky. In Once Upon a Time WorldJonathan Miles presents the remarkable story of the small strip of French coast that lured the world to its shores. It is a wild and unforgettable tale that follows the Riviera’s transformation from paradise and wilderness to a pollution imperiled concrete jungle.