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Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting the UK this week, is said to be the least literary French president in living memory. The playboy politician prefers Rolexes to Rimbaud and once had to ask how to pronounce the name of the German poet Rilke. When the French playwright Yasmina Reza trailed him for a year during the presidential campaign for her book Dawn, Evening or Night, she never once caught him with a book in his hand. How unlike our dear old Gordon Brown, who is by common consent our most bookish PM since Winston Churchill and whose idea of a holiday read is The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan.
Brown once confessed an unlikely admiration for Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre when he visited the Cheltenham Literary Festival. No wonder he takes life so seriously. But it is thought unlikely that the gloomy Gallic existentialists will feature high on the conversational menu at this week's Buckingham Palace royal banquet.
Sarko doesn't have such dour tastes. He prefers lighter fare - and the work of bestselling French novelist Marc Levy in particular.
Levy is no Camus. His first novel, If Only It Were True, is about a man who falls in love with a dying girl's ghost and was made into a film - Just Like Heaven, starring Reese Witherspoon. Critics have dubbed him "France's Dan Brown" , but Sarkozy has sprung to his defence, accusing them of literary snobbery.
Indeed, Sarkozy was so enthused by Levy's work that he once asked him for his autograph on behalf of his daughter. Rumours that Levy had a dalliance with Sarkozy's wife Cecilia were hotly denied by both parties. Levy does, however, admit to a love affair with England.
No other writer or politician has done more to improve the entente cordiale. Not only is he domiciled in South Kensington but in his recent novel, London Mon Amour, he waxes lyrical about the joys of living in the UK - he's a sort of Peter Mayle in reverse and has sold 13 million copies of his books in 38 countries.
He writes of our superior baguettes (made by English hands with English flour), our benign climate ("You never get a completely grey day like in Paris"), the charming locals ("shop assistants that actually smile at you!"), and he claims England is more civilised than France, and London is more sophisticated than Paris. SacrÈ bleu.
London, he has said in a delightful phrase, has "a perfume of culture and happiness". So when Gordon and Sarko break bread this week, Brown should banish any mention of Camus and Sartre.
Otherwise he might undo all of Levy's good work. Douse yourself, Gordon, in a perfume of culture and happiness.
Reader views (2)
Unfortunately I'm really not proud to be a French people when I see what image our dear President gives of our country. I really don't care what he does in his private life, what type of watch he likes, what woman shares his life. I only ask him to do what he was chosen for president last year for. His behaviour at Salon de l'agriculture was so "unpresidential". just because someone didn't want to shake his hand.
What a shame!
Good luck Mr Gordon Brown!
- Anne-Laure, Geneva Switzerland, 25/03/2008 21:53
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Shame about the accent on Sacré bleu.
- Peter Robinson, Audierne, France, 25/03/2008 13:50
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