Footloose in France
| Footloose in France book cover Footloose in France book cover, showing a portion of Albert Marquet's oil-on-canvas painting Saint-Jean-de-Luz | |
| Authors | John Adamson and Clive Jackson |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | George Adamson (1913–2005) (frontispiece) |
| Cover artist | Albert Marquet (1875–1947) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Travel writing |
| Set in | Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Paris, France |
| Published | Cambridge |
| Publisher | John Adamson Books |
Publication date | 2023 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 214 |
| ISBN | 978-1-898565-18-5 Search this book on  . |
| 944.0830922 | |
| Website | Book on publisher's website |
Footloose in France (2023) is a travel book by the British authors John Adamson and Clive Jackson. They recall with humour their separate experiences of living in France in the mid-to-late sixties and early seventies: Jackson worked in the western Pyrenees and Adamson in Paris.
The book, whose prologue and epilogue are set in West Mersea,[1] recounts Jackson and Adamson's French adventures, the recollection of which is sparked by the unexpected brightness of a late summer's afternoon at the Essex seaside resort, as if they were back in France.
Description
The alternate tales the authors tell are true reminiscences of a France of decades ago. There are insights into the worlds of wine-making, art and film, the challenges of language teaching, translating, banking, balloon-selling and much more. Encounters with Alain Delon,[2] Piem, the cartoonist,[3] Louis Derbré, the sculptor,[4] Toru Iwaya, the Japanese mezzotint artist,[5] Modigliani's daughter,[6] and across the tables in a Provençal restaurant, Noël Coward,[7] are mingled with interactions with the locals in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and exchanges with workers, among them waiters,[8] barbers and business executives, in Paris.[9] Falling in love at a château in the Pomerol,[10] putting on an exhibition of Franco-British humorous art in the Marais[4] and discovering a letter in Paris written by Vincent van Gogh to Paul Gauguin[11] are among the highlights of the book.
Through the memories of those they meet the reader is transported back to the Algerian War;[12] to the occupation of Paris in the Second World War;[13] to the quandary of a young French doctor working at Buchenwald in the aftermath of the War;[14] and more recently to the behaviour of the CRS in the Paris riots of May 1968.[15]
The book's frontispiece reproduces Tuileries Gardens, Paris, a painting by George Adamson, father of one of the authors.
Reception
The Cambridge Critique hailed Footloose in France as having "all the quirky fun of an authentic adventure, a trove of fascinating real-life tales – whilst it reveals the real France in all its remarkable differentness".[16] Sir Quentin Blake found the incidents and experiences sympathetic to him and induced "a measure of nostalgia".[17][better source needed] The booksellers Hatchards on Piccadilly, London, dubbed the book, "A beautiful portrayal of the country from an outsider's perspective".[18][better source needed]
References
- ↑ A seaside town near Colchester in Essex. See prologue, pp. 7–8 and epilogue, pp. 209–12.
- ↑ Chapters 11 and 15.
- ↑ Chapter 47, p. 207.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 43.
- ↑ Chapter 33.
- ↑ See Jeanne Modigliani.
- ↑ Chapter 46. Les Baux-de-Provence.
- ↑ Such as at La Coupole, Montparnasse, where, as described in the book, a version of Derbré's sculpture La Terre is given pride of place.
- ↑ Chapters 9 and 17.
- ↑ Chapter 4. At Château Beauregard.
- ↑ Letter 739, now held in the archives of the musée Réattu, Arles (inv. no. 114480).
- ↑ Chapter 18, p. 94.
- ↑ Chapter 5, pp. 27–8; chapter 43, p. 184.
- ↑ Chapter 43, pp. 190–1.
- ↑ Chapter 11, p. 65.
- ↑ "Footloose in France". The Cambridge Critique. 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
- ↑ "Footloose in France". John Adamson Books. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
- ↑ "Footloose in France by John Adamson, Clive Jackson". Waterstones. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
This article "Footloose in France" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Footloose in France. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
