ROBERT WINDER
Robert Winder is a British editor and writer whose books span fiction, history, and sport. He was Literary Editor of The Independent for five years, where he wrote a weekly book review and ran the paper's Award for Foreign Fiction, and served as Culture Editor of The Independent on Sunday and Deputy Editor of Granta magazine during the late 1990s. Earlier in his career, he was Sports Editor of the Tehran Journal and a reporter for Euromoney Magazine.
Robert's non-fiction includes Hell for Leather: A Modern Cricket Journey, Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain — which led to him becoming a founder trustee of the Migration Museum — The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden, The Last Wolf: The Hidden Springs of Englishness, and Soft Power: The New Great Game. He has also written three novels, including The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare, which imagines Shakespeare conjuring a new history play and includes a five-act work-in-progress written in blank verse.
He chairs the annual MCC/Cricket Society Book Award, is a Speaker for Schools, and contributes regularly to publications including The Guardian, New Statesman, and Condé Nast Traveller. He is married with two sons and lives in London.
Three Rivers: The Extraordinary Waterways That Made Europe
Financial Times – Best Books of 2025
Three of Europe's greatest rivers share the same geological cradle: one fertile patch of Alpine ice in the jagged heights of central Switzerland. Coursing down through the peaks, the Rhine, the Rhône, and the Po gave birth to three distinct European cultures — German, French, and Italian — as they flowed across the continent.
From this shared source, these waterways have shaped the landscape, the pattern of towns and cities, the foundations of economies, and an intricate network of transport, trade, and agriculture. From the Romanesque buttresses and vines of Provence, to the Wagnerian music of the Rhine, to the artistic miracles of Lombardy, the heart of Western Europe — its languages, religion, philosophy, science, politics, and art — has been nourished by these waters.
Setting off in the dramatic mountain landscape where the story begins, acclaimed historian Robert Winder traces the rivers' journeys from their increasingly fragile glacial sources, revealing in shimmering detail their impact on Europe's history as they flow towards the sea. As the Sunday Times put it, the book offers an enjoyable grand tour of western European history, full of flavour and sparkle, while the Financial Times praised its elegant central premise: that the Rhine, the Rhône, and the Po gave rise to Europe's three great national cultures — and, in doing so, helped unify the continent.
The idea for Three Rivers came to Robert during trips to the Alps, when he noticed that all three great river systems of Western Europe begin in the very same heights.
Privacy Policy, Cookies, Terms & Conditions
Registered Charity Number 1164814
© Isle of Wight Literary Festival 2024
