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Pardon my French: Unleash your hidden Gaul |
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Friday, 18 July 2008 |
by Charles Timoney
reviewed by Andy Kay
Charles Timoney found his inspiration to write after filing a
tax return. “The story is true,” Timoney said. “A French tax
return form is a Very Complicated Thing, and I was cursing it
and asking why this country loves to do things the difficult way.
My wife, who is French, and used to this kind of thing, asked
why I didn’t consider writing a book about it. So I did.”
‘Pardon my French: Unleash your hidden Gaul’ is a hard
book to define: part lexicon, part guidebook to French culture,
part collection of comic anecdotes. For first-timers in France, the
book is especially useful for learning the way real French people
speak. The finished product, however, only vaguely resembles its original version. When
Timoney first showed his manuscript to publishers, it was virtually an autobiography of his
experiences working for big businesses in Paris: “[Agents] said nobody would publish it because
a chap called Stephen Clarke had just written a bestseller with a book on the same subject! So
I did something different.”
Timoney found his unique voice by using humour to explain the relationship between
French language and culture: “You can never have too many writers nor too many books,” he
said. He hopes the recent influx of literature about France will help dispel some of the
stereotypes floating around. “The English still tend to regard the French as caricatures,” said
Timoney. “More writers might...provoke better understanding.”
Not too long ago, Timoney was himself a burgeoning new writer and doesn’t hesitate to offer
advice to those hoping to get published someday. “Don’t lose heart!” he said. “The writing is
only one part of the process. Finding a suitable agent was hard work and then waiting to see if
a willing publisher would be found was nerve-wracking. But success is very satisfying indeed.”
So, has publishing success changed life for this full-time patents lawyer? “Oh come on, let’s
have a bit of perspective!” he laughed. “This isn’t a million-copy thriller, and never will be. I’m
not looking at yacht catalogues yet!” Timoney says he wrote the book in his spare time and is
happy with the five-figure sales he has had in its first six months on the shelves.
The sequel to ‘Pardon my French’, as yet untitled, will be written in much the same style as
the first and will cover the many French cultural mysteries, such as when and where ‘monsieur’
is used versus the British ‘sir’. “It’s interesting, it’s a cultural thing,” Timoney said, “it seems
small, but stuff like that can provoke all sorts of new trains of thought.”
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