C’est La Folie
by Michael Wright
reviewed by Julia Witherspoon
Michael Wright has penned this true and very witty book based on his own real life French adventure. In the late summer of 2004 he left his comfortable existence in South London to begin a new life in rural France which included the purchase and renovation of a fifteenth century farmhouse – ‘La Folie’ – and his transformation from townie to solitary country farmer on foreign soil. His only company to begin with was his long-suffering cat! He had a weekly column throughout this time in the Daily Telegraph and, due to its success; the book was born, although this was never his intention.
The story charts the author’s bid to fulfil a childhood dream of becoming a real ‘Man’ and consequently is more than just another account of living ‘la belle vie’ in France. It’s easy reading, endearingly honest, written with insight and affection and is often laugh-out-loud funny. There are larger-than-life locals, bilingual chickens, diminutive but over-sexed sheep, invisible rodents, diseased root vegetables, not to mention a few femme fatales who appear along the way during Michael’s search for a soul mate to share his new rural life!
