Summer In The Cote d’Azur available now

At last, I have worked out a way to order my book online. If you click on the title “Summer In the Cote d’Azur” you can order it online, but if you live in France or use a french debit card, expect to pay VAT, so ordering on a UK card is cheaper, but please note it does not support American Express in France despite claiming it does. The insignificant cost, a mere £10 plus post and packaging cannot be enough to deter anyone from ordering a copy now. In fact, what a great Christmas present? even for someone you don’t like.

If you are local, then The English Book Centre in Valbonne has some signed copies available, and I shall be at the shop on Friday 18th between 11 and 12 if you require individual dedications for loved ones for Christmas, or hate mail depending whether you are in the Wingco’s camp and thus consider the book “ghastly”.

I did not have space yesterday for the many stories collected on my faithful blackberry on Sunday. I found a  veritable treasure trove of interesting and sometimes embarrassing information on it yesterday morning when I finally had a chance to look at it. Did you know that more than one person it our midst thinks the Wingco looks like Joseph Stalin? However the best story emanated, perhaps inevitably, from Peachy Butterfield. It seems that when at a barbecue in the semi frozen north of England last year, on the one day where the temperature reached double figures, Peachy was entertaining his mad Aunt and her friend. They had set up a kids paddling pool in the garden, the equivalent of a swimming pool in the Cote d’Azur, in case they were overcome by the heat of the English summer and Peachy, after feasting on his usual diet of suet pudding, lard, tripe and road kill, and never being one to hold back, stripped to his love heart embellished underpants and jumped into the paddling pool. One would have thought that most of the water would have left at the same time, the displacement numbers being fairly clear, However, his 79-year-old aunt, not to be outdone, whipped of her dress  to reveal she was topless beneath and joined him in the paddling pool. Worse was to come, his aunts friend, a mere stripling of 77 decided to join in, but she removed her dress to reveal nothing whatsoever underneath and also jumped in. Just to be clear about this, the result was that Peachy ended up in a paddling pool up north with two ladies averaging 78, with no bras and only two pairs of pants between the three of them.

What a good-looking chap. I bet he has written a book ideal for Christmas presents

So today I shall be meeting the deputy mayor of Valbonne to discuss putting Valbonne on the comedy map, in the nicest possible way. I think she bought a book at the launch but was perhaps too in awe of me to ask for an autograph, so I shall take my pen with me just in case. I may also take the plans I have for extending my house. Mayoral approval is now almost a formality, thereafter if the Master Mariner has done his duty, tennis and lunch at the Auberge St Donat in that order.

One sad piece of news is that the John Otway’s talk next month in Valbonne has had to be postponed for family reasons but will hopefully be rescheduled for early next year. Anyone who has already bought tickets can get a full refund at the English Book Centre.

Chris France