12/06/2012
14/05/2012
Story of a writer: François Lelord
Author and pyschiatrist François Lelord tells us how he came up with Hector, the globetrotting hero of his modern fables. The third in the series, Hector Finds Time, is out now (buy from belgraviabooks.com for just £4.79 plus p&p).
When authors are asked to explain what made them write their books or come up with a new character, they always want to give worthy reasons. Voltaire might have said he wrote Candide to criticise the Ancien Régime, religious intolerance, Leibniz and utopian ideals in an amusing and entertaining fashion. All of which would be true, but you need only read the book to understand why Voltaire really created Candide: he had fun writing about his adventures! Much more than he must have done working on his epic poems and tragedies, which have become tedious for modern readers, and were no doubt already tedious at the time, to the extent that I wonder if Voltaire himself were not bored writing them.
If you were to ask me why I created Hector and his adventures, I might reply that I wanted to tackle psychological and philosophical themes in an entertaining way; to revive the French tradition of philosophical contes, or fables; to both move and enrich my readers, and so on.
None of this would be untrue exactly, but as a psychiatrist I am generally suspicious of people giving me good reasons for having behaved in one way or another, so I ask them to tell me about the circumstances leading up to their actions.
These were the circumstances: it was winter and I had gone along on a trip to Hong Kong with an art dealer friend of mine (I am not very good at holidays, so I always try to accompany friends who have a purpose). I was meant to be writing a serious book on happiness for my French publisher (my own idea, no less), but every time I sat at my computer and wrote a few lines, I was overwhelmed with indescribable boredom. This book on happiness was making me unhappy. On top of that, I was going through a period of questioning and doubt – Was I really going to carry on practising psychiatry until I could no longer get out of my chair? Would I still be a roving bachelor when the only women interested in me had serious unresolved father issues, if not grandfather issues? My friend sensed something was up and tried to cheer me up by showing me the highlights of the city-state by night, but it was no use. Then one morning while brushing my teeth in a freezing cold bathroom – a remnant of the British colonial era? – Hector was born! I could picture him clearly, younger than me, somewhat naive, full of good intentions - I have a few of those myself – and trying his best to understand the world and help his patients. I knew straight away that telling the story of Hector’s journeys would be a joy, that I would not have to hold his hand but rather it would be he carrying me along on his adventures, drawing of course on my own experiences and those of my patients, as well as dreams and books I had read.
As for the form it took, the conte, I would not dare compare myself to Voltaire, but many readers of the Hector series have urged me to re-read Candide. Doing so alerted me to the deep impression it must have made on me as a boy, and the extent to which it continues to influence me to this day.
So thank you to Voltaire and Hong Kong, Hector’s "parents", and to my readers, who have encouraged me in letting me know I am not the only one entertained by Hector.
04/05/2012
Freedom Fries and Café Crème
Along with Gaelic Books, we've been confused for Garlic Books in the past. Given the culinary theme of our newest title, this is not quite as silly as it once was. Freedom Fries and Café Crème (available online for £5.49) is a departure for Gallic for two reasons. It’s the first piece of original fiction we’ve published, not in translation but written in English by Jocelyne Rapinac, a French teacher living in London. And it contains recipes.
In the vein of the hugely successful Mexican novel, Like Water for Chocolate, Jocelyne Rapinac’s short stories are transatlantic tales of love lost, found or rejected, accompanied by recipes for many of the dishes mentioned. Rapinac understands how central food is to so many social situations and how much attitudes to food can tell us about people. The recipes she includes reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of her characters – alongside French classics, there are recipes for a pie made with Thanksgiving leftovers and a fragrant Turkish-inspired feast, made by a character who delights his colleague with stories of overseas adventures.
While we were preparing the stories for publication, one of the most important tasks was to test all these recipes to ensure the instructions were clear and readers could look forward to delicious results. Whilst I usually work as in-house translator, my previous life as a sub-editor and occasional recipe writer for bbcgoodfood.com was put back in use. I tested half the recipes and a former colleague got on with the rest.
This was shortly before Christmas, so I was able to give some of the products of my testing as presents – little bottles of cranberry liqueur and bittersweet orangettes (candied orange peel). I had to have a couple of attempts at these... The orange strips are to be gently simmered in syrup for an hour and a half and I cheerfully walked off and left them, only to come back and find they had boiled dry. To avoid others making the same mistake, an instruction was added to keep a careful watch and add water if needed. It’s a long process to make them, involving overnight macerating and draining, but worth it – people are amazed at how nice orange peel can taste!
Another unusual recipe I tested was rose jam. Intended to be made when unsprayed, homegrown roses are in full bloom, I was testing in mid-winter: the only roses I could get hold of were flown in from Africa and covered in pesticides. I told the florist what I was intending to do with his beautiful flowers: rip them apart and boil them. He went pale as he snipped off their long stems.
Happily, most of my testing did not entail such wanton destruction. The cakes were a hit with colleagues and customers at Belgravia Books, particularly the Pain d’Epices – the kind of delicately flavoured, not too rich or sweet cake you can keep coming back to – and a very simple Christmas cake made with a jar of mincemeat.
I was back in the kitchen to film the five recipe videos we’ve put on YouTube, and I’ll be cooking again for the launch party (cheesy gougères, punchy tapenade...) in a fortnight. I hope you have as much fun with the recipes as we have.
17/04/2012
Carambars and Recettes 'so British': What's Hot in French Cookbooks
Perusing the expansive France stand at the London Book Fair yesterday, my eye was drawn, as ever, to the cookbooks. After all, wandering the vast exhibition halls, one does work up an appetite (and a thirst - was it the rockstar lighting around the Chinese event stage that made it so hot around there?).
French cookbooks are often beautifully produced. At the fair a couple of years ago, my favourite find was a book of Ladurée dessert recipes which came wrapped in tissue paper inside a box, like a case of the finest macarons. The book was so pretty, you would not want to use it, for fear of soiling its pristine pages with splatters of cake mix.
Gifty cookbooks are a particular strength of French publishers. They're beautifully shot and often packaged with the tools you'll need for the recipes, such as a piping set or baking moulds. As with the UK, there has been a craze for everything cupcake-related, along with other fun American treats such as whoopie pies and cake pops.
Novelty cookbooks are very popular, particularly ones which evoke nostalgia for childhood. This year, I saw cookbooks dedicated to everything you can make with Haribo sweets, Carambars (our guilty pleasure at Belgravia Books - inevitably a customer walks in when you've just been rendered mute by a stick of chewy caramel) and Laughing Cow cheese. Recently, a book of 'cult' Nutella recipes topped the Livres Hebdo chart of nationwide bestsellers.
I'm always amused by the specificity of French cookbooks. Perhaps because French cooks generally feel confident in the basics, they're more interested in learning quirky tricks and getting new ideas to impress their friends at their next apéro dinatoire (an informal, yet chic buffet party). There are numerous books dedicated to verrines, for example (things you can serve in glasses, whether layered terrines or individual desserts). At the fair this year, I saw books on the subjects of Asian soups and Petits Plats au vin (not just any dishes with wine in them, only little ones).
The French cookbook scene is certainly less dominated by TV chefs than the UK market. At the Fleurus stand, I was told that rights to their cookbooks tend not to be bought in the UK, since publishers here are always looking for a celebrity angle and a primetime series to piggyback on. I also learned that Jamie Oliver has failed to make the transition over the channel, in spite of the recent surge in interest in British cuisine. Crumble cookbooks were everywhere a few years ago, and the British classic still features on bistro menus all over France. A book of British recipes from Fleurus, God Save the Cook, has apparently been selling very well, perhaps riding the current wave of royalist interest. Might the French have something to learn from les rosbifs after all?
10/04/2012
Story of a writer: Maxime Chattam
Growing up in a small town just outside Paris, crime-writer-to-be Maxime Chattam was a keen reader of science fiction and a big fan of Stephen King. As a teenager, he visited the USA several times. Several of his novels are set in the States including Carnage, published by Gallic Books last month (Read a review here). This short, shocking novella follows Detective Lamar Gallineo as he investigates the truth behind a spate of massacres at New York high schools.
Chattam studied criminology, giving him expert knowledge of criminal psychology and forensic techniques. Later, working in a bookshop exposed him to the ins and outs of the publishing industry and funded the writing of his first thriller. In an unusual interview with his best friend, Frédéric Denesle, Chattam described what set him on the path to becoming a writer:
Do you want the fairytale or thriller version?! Once upon a time there was a twelve-year-old boy. Around that age, I leapt rather too quickly from naivety to lucidity, with the sudden realisation that life was not the fuzzy romantic notion you read about in books or saw in the movies. My view of the world became very dark and cynical.
'I didn't want to settle for just one career; I changed my mind from one day to the next, wanting to live all kinds of lives'
As the years passed, my school put more and more pressure on me to decide what I wanted to be - fireman, doctor or computer scientist. But I didn't want to settle for just one career; I changed my mind from one day to the next, wanting to live all kinds of different lives – as long as they were all exciting. I took acting classes which allowed me to play the part of beggar or rich man, to be funny or sinister. At the same time, I was writing a lot: short stories, poetry, even screenplays. It was all just for fun to begin with, until it dawned on me that writing could allow me to fulfil my dream: I could be a whole cast of characters at once, in whatever setting in time or place I chose, and I was in total control of what happened.
Then one day I met the great actor Pierre Hatet. A friend of mine backstage had passed him something I'd been working on. Pierre encouraged me to keep at it and spurred me on to put a play to paper, entitled Le Mal (Evil). The die was cast. After that came a very autobiographical detective story, whose main character had the same initials as me, and then what I consider to be my first novel, Le 5ème Regne (The Fifth Reign), which I wrote aged twenty as a kind of farewell to childhood. A second novel, L'Ame du Mal (The Soul of Evil), followed, written in the evenings after my shifts at Fnac bookshop and published under a different name. The reaction from readers was incredible and the book was awarded the Prix Sang d'Encre in 2002. Since then, I have been lucky enough to be able to spend every day writing.
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