It has been reported in the press this week that a replica of the Grotte Chauvet has been created. It will be open to the public by the time you read this. The original, containing thousands of prehistoric animal and figure drawings, will no longer be accessible to visitors because our human presence is putting…
Spring is stepping out, putting on her finery, dressing the land in colour while the honeybees are about gorging on the almond and rosemary blossoms; the olive trees are pruned, the burning of the excess foliage has been completed and now sawing of what should be sufficient wood for the rest of this century is…
A few days ago, I set off from our Olive Farm overlooking the Bay of Cannes in the south of France on a nine-hour drive to our northern home east of Paris situated a few miles west of the border to the Champagne region. As I was travelling alone, I decided to take the timing…
I am frequently asked who my favourite writers are; authors I return to time and time again. One of the first who springs to mind is Jean Giono. Son of a cobbler and a laundress, he is a Provençal writer through and through. Henry Miller, the great American writer, described Giono as one of the…
Some of you may have read about or seen on the news the appalling floods that hit my homeland of Cannes and its environs in the south of France at the beginning of this month. We were there; we had driven down the day before to spend a quiet week together, olive harvesting and writing….
I am writing this from Hollywood where the day is just breaking and the sun is rising above the verdant hills dotted with shots of startling red and purple bougainvillea. From the window here in my hotel room, I am looking across to the HOLLYWOOD sign. Tonight is my LA event at the Barnsdall Theatre….