Part of my research for my trip to France involved reading Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence. It’s delightful and filled with all kinds of hilarious anecdotes about French people, food, weather, and feeling like a foreigner in your chosen home. I love Peter’s writing. He was a copywriter, and so for that reason I also have an affinity for his passionate embrace of life when he moved to France with his wife after fifteen years in the ad business. Now, after reading his book, and being there myself, I can understand the draw.
However, I recently discovered Peter Mayle wrote another widely known book I read in elementary school called Where Did I Come From? It’s a book written to help explain the “facts of life” to kids whose parents are afraid to even spell s-e-x around them. Millions of copies have been sold, but I am shocked to discover that Peter wrote it. I wonder, did writing that book help Peter to realize that he was from France? If it did, then I really need to go read it again. It would have given me a reason to tell my parents I was suffering through Canadian winters because I was Parisian and we needed to move.
Though the two books could not be more different, I guess it shows me an author can have a wide range. But I don’t know what I’ll think if I find out Agatha Christie helped write Are You There God It’s Me Margaret.
Has a favorite writer of yours ever changed genre, and did you still follow them?
- Where Did I Come From? is also available as an African-American edition. Really?! We come from different places? Maan, my parents didn’t tell me anything!
4 Comments on That’s So Peter Mayle
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Holy cow! Who knew???
i stumbled upon this article while i was googling to see who is Peter Mayle, cause his book ‘where did i come from’ just got banned in my country (Malaysia). nice write up, n I have to say I love what you have done with your website, i work in web design and i have to say it simply looks amazing! its so easy on the eyes and looks very classy, looking forward on reading more of your stuff. thanks
Sures,
I thank you so much for your compliments, and especially for writing to me about what is going on with the book. Please do check the blog later today for a little follow-up blog from me about the Malaysian story! Please do check in, spread the word, and above all keep reading! Reading is education. Education is freedom.