Book description
'Edgier than Bryson, hits harder than Mayle'
The Times
A year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is
still struggling with some fundamental questions:
What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Why are there no health
warnings on French nudist beaches? And is it really polite to
sleep with your boss's mistress?
Paul opens his English tea room, and mutates (temporarily)
into a Parisian waiter; samples the pleasures of typically French
hotel-room afternoons; and, on a return visit to the UK, sees the full
horror of a British office party through Parisian eyes.
Meanwhile, he continues his search for the perfect French
mademoiselle. But will Paul find l'amour éternel, or will it
all end in
merde?
MERDE ACTUALLY
In his second comedy of errors, Paul West continues to sabotage
the entente cordiale.
Author's apology: 'I'd just like to say sorry to all the
suppository fans out there, because in this book there are no
suppositories. There are, however, lots of courgettes, and I see this
as progress. Suppositories to courgettes - I think it proves that I'm
developing as a writer.' Stephen Clarke
Stephen Clarke lives in France. He has experimented with
Gauloises, pétanque and suppositories, but only as research for his
writing. He likes to spend his free time sitting on café terraces
trying to think up a clever answer to the question, 'Did those things
in your books really happen?'
His first book, A Year in the Merde, which introduced Paul
West, was first self-published in 2004 in Paris where it became a
word-of-mouth bestseller, and has now been translated into fourteen
languages, including French.
