An indispensable, richly informative, and always entertaining sourcebook on Provence by the writer who has made the region his own.
Though organized from A to Z, this is hardly a conventional work of reference. It is rather a selection of those aspects of Provence that Peter Mayle in almost twenty years there has found to be the most interesting, curious, delicious, or downright fun.
He writes about subjects as diverse as architecture, expatriates, scorpions, the Provençal character, legends, lavender, linguistic oddities, the origins of “La Marseillaise,” wild boars and Frenchwinds. And, of course, he writes about food and drink.
Provence A—Z is a delight for Peter Mayle’s ever-growing audience and these unabridged selections are the perfect complement to any guidebook on Provence, or, for that matter, France.
Peter Mayle was a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France. He spent fifteen years in advertising before leaving the business in 1975 to write educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. In 1989, A Year in Provence was published and became an international bestseller. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he was a contributing writer to magazines and newspapers. Indeed, his seventh book, A Year in Provence, chronicles a year in the life of a British expatriate who settled in the village of Ménerbes. His book A Good Year was the basis for the eponymous 2006 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring actor Russell Crowe. Peter Mayle died in Provence, France.