C'est la Folie - Michael Wright

In early 2004, Michael Wright said a fond farewell to his comfortable South London existence and, with just his long-suffering cat for company, set out to begin a new life. His destination was 'La Folie', a dilapidated 15th century farmhouse in need of love and renovation in the heart of rural France...

He never intended to write a book about it, but the readers' response to his column in theDaily Telegraphinspired him to write what is far more than just another account of livingla belle viein France. With endearing honesty,C'est LaFoliecharts the author's bid to fulfil a childhood dream of becoming a real Man as he struggles to make the journey from clinically social townie to rugged, solitarypaysan. And in chronicling his enthusiastic attempts at looking after livestock and coming to terms with the concept of living Abroad Alone, the author discovers what it takes to be a man at the beginning of the 21st century, especially if one is short sighted, flat footed and not much good at games.

Life-affirming, laugh out loud funny and written with insight and affection (and boasting more than its fair share of larger-than-life locals, bilingual chickens, diminutive but over-sexed sheep, invisible rodents, diseased root vegetables, manly power tools with unpronounceable names, not to mention a fair fewfemmes fatales), Michael Wright's tale of a new-found solitary life in France with a cat, a piano and an aeroplane, is as much an elegy for rural France, fast disappearing under the invasion of 'Les Anglais', as for his own lost innocence.