Book description
Though happy enough with his lot, Michael Simkins has never truly
shaken the nagging doubt - helpfully upheld by his partner Julia -
that he somehow lacks worldly sophistication. While she spent her
teenage years as a nanny on a boat moored at Cannes, his utter lack of
travel experience (Weymouth, Cleethorpes and a day trip to Dieppe)
still has the power to shock people into leaving dinner parties early.
So as he hits middle-age, Michael takes up the challenge of
broadening his horizons. He decides to improve himself in the same way
English gentlemen lacking refined edges have for centuries: by
learning from our more cultured French neighbours. Michael, an English
provincial ingénue, sets off to discover just what the Gallic
nation can teach him and the rest of us Anglo-Saxons about living the
good life. Armed only with 50 Useful Phrases in French, he
waits to see if his odyssey from La Manche to the Riviera will finally
turn him from the scotch-egg eating spawn of Anne Widdecombe and John
McCririck into the champagne-sipping love child of Serge Gainsbourg
and Catherine Deneuve. Julia is saying a prayer for him at Lourdes.
Michael Simkins trained at RADA. He has appeared in more than 70
plays, stage highlights include
A View from the Bridge
at the National Theatre as well as musicals
Chicago
and
Mamma Mia
. He also directed Alan Ayckbourn's
Absent Friends
at the Greenwich Theatre. He has made countless TV appearances - recent
credits include
Foyle's War
and
My Family
- as well as turns on the silver screen in such films as Mike Leigh's
Topsy-Turvy.
He has worked with luminaries as diverse as Anthony Perkins, John
Malkovich, Michael Gambon and Buster Merryfield. He lives with his
actress wife Julia in London.
