NUJ-Paris celebrates 200 members, 20 June (PARTY!)

Just a reminder about the forthcoming 'bash' to mark the Paris NUJ branch hitting the 200 member mark. The landmark will be celebrated in true Paris fashion with good food, fine wine, genial company and, the highlight of the evening, NO speech from chair Jeff Apter.
It's so tempting that the NUJ's general secretary Jeremy Dear has already signed up and he lives in London. Put you name down with Diana Smith at diana@gsmith.com.fr today.
Friends, family and – especially - journalists who are not NUJ members are all welcome. Members of SOAF, as NUJ affiliates, are also invited
Date: Tues 26 June
Time: apero at 8pm (The event will be preceded at 6.30pm with a short branch meeting at 6.30pm.)
Venue: Le Trumilou restaurant, 84 Quai de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris 4e.
Nearest Metro: Hôtel de Ville.
Price: 27€

The €27 menu comprises: Apéritif: kir ---
Friton d'Auvergne (Terrine de porc)
Ou Mousse de légumes
---
Poulet à l'estragon
Ou Poisson du jour
(vegetarian option possible)
---
Moelleux au chocolat
Ou Tarte aux fruits de saison
---
I bouteille de vin pour 3 personnes
Coffee
---
Contact Diana Smith at diana@gsmith.com.fr with your choice of menu.
- -
Jim Pollard,
Secretary, Paris NUJ
Paris website: http://www.nujparis.org.uk
Email: nujparis@wanadoo.fr

Emma Vandore's Schizophrénie française

Writing my first book, Schizophrenie Francaise - Sego, Sarko, Jacques et moi, has been a bit like having a baby. I resisted the idea of conceiving for a long time, and gave in after a lot of persuasion and encouragement. After several botched starts, my baby began to take shape. Bringing him into this world cost me a number of sleepless nights, a little nausea, combined with some moments of sheer delight. In the process, I made sacrifices, neglected my friends, and also put on a fair amount of weight. My next project will be shedding those excess kilos.

The book, published by Jean-Claude Gawsewitch Editeur, is a personal account of three years discovering the Byzantine world of French politics. Until the presidential campaign began to heat up, I was often the only Anglo-Saxon around.

While there are many more experienced and highly respected American and British journalists in Paris, most of them are too busy chasing the lady made famous by having the world’s first face-transplant or writing articles about Parisien dog poo to turn up at political speeches or the parliament, especially when they can watch them events on television or lift copy from the news-wires. Nor can many of them afford to board the French equivalent of Air Force One and follow Chirac and his ministers around the globe as his valiant efforts to persuade Vietnamese and Chinese students of the benefits of learning French has limited interest to readers outside of France. Until very recently, I worked for the only major international news agency not to have a French service, meaning I had the honour and privilege of being one of the few non-French journalists skulking in the corridors of power.

During the referendum campaign for the doomed European constitution, I discovered that my non-Frenchness is often sharply felt. While I would often forget my nationality as I got on with doing my job, the moment I open my mouth and my accent slips out, florescent lights start flashing on my forehead which read: ‘NOT FRENCH: PROBABLY ANGLO-SAXON.’ For most French people, the flashing soon becomes a sort of exotic accessory, like French ladies’ scarves are for British people. But in nationalistic world of French politics, the light never stops blinking.

My problem, being a Scot, is that the epithet ‘Anglo’ was never going to do down very well. Let’s get things straight. I am not an Anglo-Saxon. I am Scottish, or if you prefer, British. Even at a stretch European. But there is no Angle or Saxon blood running through my veins, both being largely illiterate tribes from Germany who died out about 1,000 years ago.

The French appetite for blaming Anglo-Saxons for all the ills of globalisation that threaten the French way of life led to many amusing – in hindsight – clashes. In London, I debated with Tony Blair and Dominique de Villepin the merits British cuisine. In Gleneagles, I convinced one of Chirac’s officials to taste the Scottish delicacy haggis. In the Salle des Fetes of the Elysée palace, Jacques Chirac fondly related a trip around Scotland as a young hitch-hiker.

‘Here is a book that all the presidential candidates should read,’ said Paris Match the day my book was published March 29. ‘Emma Vandore is one of the rare correspondents in Paris to cover directly all the political events she recounts,’ said Liberation. ‘This book covers political and societal events,’ said Les Echos. ‘But her take on France, sometimes between the lines, should be read by all French people who are prepared to abandon for a brief moment their sensitivity.’

My tales of the campaign trail continued on my blog http://anglosaxonne.blogspot.com. My next task, whilst loosing the weight, is translating all of this into something that an English-speaking publisher might be interested in. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Le Pavé d'Orsay

The place is an art gallery/café, there'll be a new exhibit up, good music, SHORT readings, wine and a semblance of food, and time to talk before and after and, with some gentleness, during... It’s the first time I’ll be reading from the new novel. Hope to see you there (or elsewhere, before the summer?).

Le Pavé d’Orsay Presents

An evening of readings and music

Wine and Buffet
8 p.m. Wednesday, June 20th 2007
48 rue de Lille 75007 Paris
Metro Rue du Bac / RER Musée d’Orsay
(Directly behind the Musée d’Orsay )

With:

Adrian Mathews Vivienne Vermes Reine Arcache Melvin Tom O’Brien

Josh Levine (keyboards) Christian Thompson (guitar)


Adrian Mathews read English at Cambridge before becoming a lecturer at London University’s British Institute in Paris. During this period, he published a critical study of 19th-century literature, “Romantics and Victorians.” His first novel, “The Hat of Victor Noir,” appeared in 1996. This was followed by “Vienna Blood,” which won the Crime Writers Silver Dagger Award. His latest book, “The Apothecary’s House,” was published last year to great critical acclaim. Alan Sillitoe called it “gripping, intriguing, and satisfying . . . a wonderful novel.” It has already been translated into several languages and is currently being adapted for the screen. Adrian is now at work on a new novel with a North American setting.

Born and raised in Manila, Reine Arcache Melvin is the author of “A Normal Life and Other Stories,” which was awarded a National Book Award for fiction. The French translation, “Une vie normale” (Esprit des Peninsules, Paris) was enthusiastically reviewed in Libération, Le Canard Enchainé, Journal du Dimanche and elsewhere. Her short stories have also won prizes and appeared in numerous literary reviews and anthologies in the United States, France and Asia. She has read extensively at American and Asian literary festivals and has been justly described as “a superlative writer of short fiction.” She has co-edited literary reviews in New York and Paris and is currently nearing completion of a novel.

Vivienne Vermes, born in London, has made Paris her home for more than 20 years. She has to date published three collections of her poetry, and her short fiction has appeared in, among others, “New Writing Nine” (Vintage/British Council), “Paris-Atlantic” and The Mail on Sunday. She has also participated in various international literary festivals and run several British Council-sponsored writing workshops. Vivienne has recently recorded a CD of her own poetry and is writing a novel. She also works as a stage actress and voice-over artist.

Tom O’Brien grew up in Ireland and London. In the 1970s, he was founder/editor of the Irish literary quarterly, “Graphein,” which published early work by Neil Jordan, Desmond Hogan, Matthew Sweeney and others. His own poetry and short fiction have appeared in publications in Ireland and Britain. In France, he has taken part in poetry readings and also co-edited issues of Pharos, the literary magazine founded by American writer Alice Notley and her late husband, the much-missed British poet Douglas Oliver. Tom O’Brien has staged a number of plays and dramatic monologues in Paris. A radio drama by him is presently under consideration at the BBC, and he is currently working on his first novel.

Christian Thompson studied music in Southern California, where he grew up. He worked as sideman and band-leader both there and later in New York. He has performed with The Temptations, The Drifters, the Steve Allen Big Band, Charles Rutherford and others. Since moving to Paris, Christian has been playing jazz and R&B at various clubs and venues in the city.

Jazz pianist, Joshua Levine, studied under Bruce Barth in his native New York. Following his move to Paris in 2001, Josh began appearing at the Chez Haynes Jazz Club, as well as the Swann Bar and the Café Universel. He has frequently worked with singer Keri Chryst and has recently embarked on a musical partnership with guitarist Christian Thompson.