The Prix Edmée de la Rochefoucauld is given every year to the author of a first novel, and I always try to attend the Prize giving ceremony at Cercle Interallié, for its president, Hélène de la Baume, is charming and the lunch time cocktail party always fun and glamorous. But this year there was a special bonus ! the 27 … Read More
An actress turned (excellent) writer
Anne Wiazemsky seems to have always been discovered and chosen by fabulous men. First the film director, Robert Bresson cast her in « Au Hasard Balthazar ». Then Jean Luc Godard, soon to be her husband, shot « La Chinoise » for her. And Pasolini asked her to play in “Theorem”. And then followed at least seven other movies while … Read More
Studying the elite at the Sorbonne
First you have to go through security at the entrance of the Sorbonne and if you don’t have a student card or a professor’s I.D., you stay on the street. Then you walk through long corridors all the way from Place de la Sorbonne to Rue St Jacques and there, on the left, you see a little wooden door that … Read More
Lally gets into St Andrews at last
A French golfer, Lally Segard, becomes one the first seven Lady members of the Royal and Ancient golf Club in St Andrews and noone notices it in France ! Typical… Well I will tell you how extraordianry she is.
Remembering Comtesse Greffulhe
Marcel Proust is very much in fashion in France. Is it the socialist government who needs to dream about the Belle Epoque or is snobism just an escape from dreary daily life? One thing is sure, the biography of Comtesse Greffulhe by Laure Hillerin (published by Flammarion) was a hit for Christmas and its career keeps on growing thanks to … Read More
A goddaughter’s tribute
Georgia de Chamberet has been an editor and a translator in London for many years. Since her godmother, the romantic writer and adventuress Lesley Blanch, died in 2007, Chamberet has never stopped looking for unpublished manuscripts and drawings in the numerous cases of documents she inherited from her. The result is this new book published by Virago in London « On … Read More
Michel Houellebecq, the bird of ill omen
« Soumission », the latest novel by Michel Houellebecq, was the object of somber rumors since mid December. It finally came out on ….Wednesday January 7 th, 2015, the same day that Charlie Hebdo caricatured the writer on the cover. And you know the rest of the story…. The next day, his face was on all the newspaper stands (the … Read More
Notre Chanel by Jean Lebrun
Starting the New Year is always a little tough. One is overwhelmed by all the emotions (or lack of them) generated by Xmas with the family and also disgusted by all the food that has been ingurgited over the holidays. I nonetheless immensely enjoyed my lunch with former boss at the radio Jean Lebrun who has been on air evey … Read More