francofiled

  Feeling withdrawal symptoms after the Paris Olympics?  I'm feeling them too. So I went in search of this old purchase. An Astérix published in 1968 to coincide with the Mexico City Olympics.  Good fun!

We recently took a mid-week break in one of our more prestigious hotels and among the facilities I spotted on arrival was a small library space but with expansive shelves. Books! Forget about the spa; a reading nook is my pamper place. Getting absorbed in a book is something that I really enjoy and what a delight it was to find these volumes from the Masterpiece Library of Short Stories.  Naturally I picked the one marked FRENCH - Volumes 3 and 4.  Just look at this contents page. Wouldn't you be tempted to spend an hour or two?  Well, I was and that's just what I did.  It was time well spent. What a labour of love it must have been for editor Sir JA Hammerton   He and his board of eminent critics worked under the auspices of The Educational Book Company to compile these volumes of stories across countries and time periods. The books, dating from the early twentieth century, naturally show signs of age, wear and tear but those stories are timeless...

  Not long to go to a talk with my daughter, Rachel on the Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. It's for the Cercle français de Belfast and will cover Edgar DEGAS' sculptural masterpiece and Camille LAURENS' book of the same name published by Les Fugitives press.  Oh, and Théophile GAUTIER gets plenty of attention too thanks to his short treatise on Le RAT - the name given to the young dancers at the Paris Opéra. One of those "little rats " is the subject of the talk, Marie Geneviève van GOETHEM.  She was born in 1865 and grew up to be our Little Dancer and model for Degas.  Check out the Cercle here  and the book at Les Fugitives available here . It's fascinating and well worth a read.  Maybe see you there?

An old friend has left the magazine shelves - France - the magazine for Francophiles.  I collected it for very many years, since the 1980s and started becoming a subscriber with Issue 2.  Back then it was published four times a year and was a very collectible publication. You could even get slip cases to hold four issues, the series for a year. Later it was published monthly and still managed to retain its freshness with new and interesting articles. While sometimes some features would recur they always had a different angle or approach. Back then the magazine had competitions and I was lucky there on a couple of occasions winning some lovely French-themed books.  But my special win was a return Motorail package with ferry crossings between any two rail stations.  I opted for Calais to Nice return! Eventually decades of issues built up and I decided on recycling and give aways. I have held on to several significant issues: The 150th offering and the homage to Paris e...

"They called us the Inseparables" Lasting friendships that were formed in early childhood are a fascination for me. What is it that brings individuals together, keeps them together and makes them inseparable? And for me, as an avid Francophile, add to that the “mystery” of why a novel by French writer Simone de Beauvoir should come to light years after the celebrated author’s death then I’m hooked. I had first learned of this book having spotted it on NetGalley, a site that sends pre-publication copies in eformat and sure enough I applied to read it and was duly sent a copy. Of course I had been much aware of Simone de Beauvoir, her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre but I had been more used to reading about her rather than her work. I am so sorry that I didn't start sooner because I just loved this book.  I was grateful for the introduction by Deborah Levy who rightly pointed out that her foreword  contained  spoilers .  I decided to stay with that however as it he...

  I very much enjoyed A Sunday in Ville d'Avray by Dominique Barbéris and found it an atmospheric read. The story unfolds in an area close to Paris where I once stayed and I felt transported back to that time and place. That's one sure way to get involved in a story - to have a sense of sharing a part of it. At the time of reading the nights were on the turn with the new season bringing earlier dark evenings. The book matched the weather and this was perfect autumnal reading with descriptions of "sodden leaves macerated in heaps" forecasting the outdoor reality. I picked up my copy by chance at a favourite bookstore where the owner seeing my intended purchase asked me to wait a moment as he had some bookplates signed by the author. He returned a short while later with the plate and positioned it on the title page for me. Brilliant, I'm grateful to the author and the bookseller for their little acts of sharing. I'm even more invested in the book now. More  A S...

................ Alex ................ By Pierre LEMAITRE Translated by Frank WYNNE Maclehose Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-0-85705-626-9 This was a real page turner of a book from Pierre LEMAITRE, whose literary talents were recognised through the award of the Prix Goncourt for another of his works - The Great Swindle.  The book was translated from French by Frank WYNNE and published by Maclehose - the same publisher who brought us Karim Miské's Arab Jazz. Alex is the second in a series which features the superbly drawn character of a diminutive Commandant Camille Verhœven (a talented artist himself) and the equally well crafted characters of his team at the Brigade Criminelle in Paris. I've read  Alex  out of sequence but it was nonetheless a great read, recapping aspects of the previous book,  Irè ne  and anticipating the third instalment,  Camille. Look, there are no spoilers here...except to say there are twists and turns tha...

................ Arab Jazz ................ By Karim Miske Translated by Sam Gordon Maclehose Press, 2015 ISBN: 9780857053114 Arab Jazz is Karim Miske's first novel and it got me hooked from the word go. I am a fan of detective fiction and although books are not supposed to be judged from their covers the artwork on this one was particularly a propos. The blend of religious symbolism on the cover cleverly suggests the interplay of cultures and that's just what we get.  The scene is set with a tethered hand, blood-stained orchids - here is a murder on a Parisian balcony.  For a little more information on the storyline check out the Maclehose Press  page here .  No spoilers. Notice that in my picture of the cover, I have added a pair of earphones.  That's because the novel is supplemented with a playlist.  Karim Miske is also a film maker and it's the first time I have come across such a technique in a book. I was a good...

  I find it hard to part with books and have several old texts from my school days. One such is a book of French Translation Passages. It dates from the late 1960s and when I found it again recently I flicked through to an extract that has come to mind several times over the years since. I have the book beside me now, open at Passage #42, relating to the writer, Anatole France . The extract appeals to me. In summary it refers to a charming, greying man, nearly 70 but with a young disposition. Someone whose age suited him and who in the salon preferred to give way rather than argue. Described as a seductive speaker, drawing on literary references, he disliked stubborn, argumentative people, saying about them : - They think it is important to be right! That sounds to me now like good role model behaviour. I wonder if I also thought that as the 17-year old translating the piece for the first time. As I engaged in the lengthy, technical process of translation back then I wonder if thos...