Letter from Provence

by Sheryle Bagwell

Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell's move to Provence is enlivened by the discovery of a book of seventeenth-century letters.

After buying an ancient stone house in Provence, Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell finds in her attic an old edition of selected letters by the seventeenth-century French noblewoman Madame de Sévigné, who died, she discovers, in the grand chateau down the road. So begins Sheryle's new life in southern France as she deals with an ageing house, a combative neighbour and a foreign language—all infused with her reading of the glittering yet doomed world of Louis XIV's France.

Madame de Sévigné wrote hundreds of witty, acerbic—and heartfelt—letters from Paris and Brittany to her beloved daughter who had moved to the chateau in Provence after marrying a count. Madame de Sévigné's correspondence has been hailed down the centuries by the likes of Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf, who described her as a 'genius of the art of speech'.

Sheryle soon, too, falls under Madame de Sévigné's spell; she thinks of her as an early blogger in an era when even proper newspapers had yet to emerge. But above all, Madame de Sévigné's ardent letters to her daughter prompt Sheryle to reflect on the life of her own long-dead mother, whose thwarted dreams of one day travelling to France she is now fulfilling.

'The hopes and dreams passed between mothers and daughters. A beautiful book, compulsively readable.' Susan Johnson, author of Aphrodite's Breath

Kindle Edition

Expected publication March 3, 2026

Reviews

[Karren Sandercock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheryle Bagwell is an Australian journalist, she and her husband Michael buy an ancient stone home in France and in the village of Rabasse in northern Provence. The couple have to deal with and overcome many obstacles including, the house and it's many issues, a difficult neighbour Jacques, bureaucracy and finding tradesmen, and for Sheryle trying to speak French and be understood and not laughed at is more of a challenge.

Sheryle finds an old book in the attic, printed in the 1960’s and it’s contains copies of the correspondence written by the seventeenth-century French noblewoman Madame de Sévigné, and she lived in the seventeenth century. Madame de Sévigné wrote hundreds of letters to her daughter Francois when she married François de Castellane-Ornano-Adhémar de Monteil de Grignan and he became the lieutenant governor of the area. They were funny, full of gossip, things she observed and her thoughts over three decades.

Sheryle understands what Madame de Sévigné did was ground for the time, they were copied and circulated throughout the country. This causes her to reflect on her own life and her relationship with her deceased mother Judith, who dreamt of travelling to France and now she’s fulfilling mums her greatest wish.

I received a copy of Letter from Provence by Sheryle Bagwell from NetGalley and Allen & Unwin in exchange for an honest review. In her memoir you discover how she dealt with her troubled childhood, education was her key to escaping it and as an adult she had more empathy towards her mum’s situation.

You are taken on a journey from the couples flat in Bondi, to Rabasse in the northern Provence of France, Sheryle and Michael have to manage the weather and mistral winds, the hype around truffles, many festivals, cycling trips, from taking sabbaticals to retiring and Covid.

I really enjoyed reading about Sheryle and Michael living in France and how over three hundred years later she's gazing at the same stars as Madame de Sévigné and thinking about life and how amazing is that and four and a half stars from me.