It was in Paris - late spring 2004 - an ordinary day at Brentano’s Bookstore selling books in English to the French - when the Englishman Paul West entered my life. The “affaire” began innocently with a call from a Frenchman asking if we had in stock A YEAR IN THE MERDE by Paul West published by Red Garage Books. « Merde,quoi? Red Garage, quoi? » I thought in my best French. I replied, with the authority of years of bookselling experience, « You mean A YEAR IN PROVENCE. . And it’s not by Paul West. He’s a literary novelist. » The caller insisted « ‘Non’ - A YEAR IN THE MERDE, written in English, by Paul West. It was reviewed in today’s Metro newspaper (the free paper in French distributed in the Paris subway). I was stuck. I had no inkling that this was the debut of two days of, excuse my French, deep do-do. I did a frantic book search in cyberspace as we spoke. Rien - nothing - neither book, nor author, nor publisher showed up. I told the customer I’d do further research and took his number thinking it bizarre we hadn’t been informed about the existence of a new book on Paris in English. I googled. Still nothing. I tried distributors in Canada and Australia. Not a trace. I deduced the work was probably self-published or even print-on-demand, both terrible obstacles for a book-buyer. I gave up.

The next day the merde hit the fan. The phone rang repeatedly with calls from frantic French obsessed with reading what a “rosbif” had to say about them, and an unknown “rosbif” at that. My colleagues replying to the numerous queries were losing their sang-froid. “Do something!”they begged. Then he called. Paul, that is. But not really Paul - because Paul is the protagonist in the book as well as the nom-de-plume the author, Stephen Clarke, used for the first, self-published edition of the book. Stephen said “I got a message on my website that you wanted to get in touch with me. » Totally blasé - cool, quoi. ”You have a website?” I googled with no result. » « You should have tried Yahoo France. “Merde alors!” « You can find the first ten pages of the book on the site. I printed the pages, reading greedily on the metro ride home, smiling knowingly and even laughing out loud. The human comedy à la française. Holy merde - he’d captured it! (And, of course, women are known to be charmed by men who make them laugh.)

I immediately ordered ten copies on consignment. Stephen brought them by in a shopping caddy on Saturday morning. They sold out in an hour. I called him on his mobile phone to bring more. And so it began. The word spread and the sales continued to rocket locally. We were the only market lucky enough to have a supplier - the author! A French radio personality known for insulting his guests invited Stephen on. Then the British press picked up on it. We started getting orders from across Great Britain and as far away as Hong Kong. Within a few months a major publisher bought the rights and A YEAR IN THE MERDE is now marketed internationally. And Stephen doesn’t have to do the deliveries with his grocery caddy. This summer it was translated into French. The French title is GOD SAVE LA FRANCE. C’est vrai!

The second Paul West chronicle of Anglo-French misadventure, MERDE ACTUALLY, to be published in September in the UK, will not disappoint the fans. Privileged to have an advance proof copy, I know what’s in store. Paul follows « ses femmes » from Paris to other spots in France continuing to put his foot in it from time to time. It’s a story chock full of hilarious social comedy including scenes of the French on vacation, la belle famille (the in-laws), and the hassles of doing business in a country that prefers to play. And it’s a French girlfriend that entices him back across the Channel where he must deal with British-style «emmerdeurs » and « emmerdements « . Get ready to laugh out loud. This time we’ll know what to say when you call. Bonne lecture !
Belle V. (www.brentanos.fr)