Oh the French! Where would the Anglo publishing industry be without them? Ever since Peter Mayle first made goo-goo eyes at sun dappled Provence in 1990 and pocketed a pile of dough in the process, many a self- respecting hack with a smidgeon of French culture has followed in his train. Most have been purveyors of what the tastily named Piu Marie Eatwell dismissively terms ‘Froglit’:
A highly commercialised and formulaic genre of lightly humorous fiction or non-fiction, generally written by Anglo-American expats living in France and usually with an autobiographical bias, dedicated to eulogising, elucidating, satirising or otherwise promulgating stereotypical ideas about the French.
With They Eat Horses, Don’t They? (yes, they do) Eatwell’s intention is to set the record straight about our Gallic brethren. A former lawyer who made France her home ten years ago after falling in love with a Frenchman (as you do), Eatwell, who is of mixed Asian/English descent, does a fine line in waspish commentary and schoolmarmish erudition.
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