An Englishman à la Campagne: Life in Deepest France (Englishman series) - Softcover

Michael Sadler is a writer and academic. Born in Lewes, he now lives in Paris, where he teaches an MA course in Contemporary French Studies at the British Institute. He is married with one daughter and grows his own leeks.

“An outsider attempts to win over his new neighbors with his gardening skills in this pratfall-filled tale of expatriatism.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Sadler is English. Those around him are country French, and they are not impressed. He has just moved into a farm in the Loire valley. While the cottage is passable, the garden is an Amazonia of six-foot-high lettuces. But Sadler has eyes on winning the village garden contest to prove his worthiness among the august peasantry. Sadler is far happier savoring the food and wine, or serving as a foil to the natives—he knows when taking a poke in the eye is worth it to get two slaps on the back...He attends a ribald communion lunch. He starts a perverse search for an ugly village in this region of blowsy charm. He decides to triumph in the garden contest by growing sexy vegetables like John Malkovich (don’t ask). The English take on the French: formidably droll with a touch of the wacko.” —Kirkus Reviews