Paulette: French by birth, English by chance

By Martin Sorrell

Paulette Tourdes was born in Jussac, a village in south-west Auvergne, in 1916. She spent half of her childhood there and half in the nearby town of Aurillac, growing up as part of a large extended family in typically rustic rural France.

She went to Spain for several months at the start of the Civil War, and not long after moved to England, having met her future husband in France; they were married in 1941. This is her colourful story, based in part on recordings she made in 2002, told by the eldest of her children, Martin.

It is a tale of two languages and two cultures, overshadowed by two World Wars, political activism and mental illness. It examines what it means to leave your homeland and to embrace another and, for the children, the challenges of growing up bilingual. Sometimes funny, parfois triste, this is a story that explores the strong bonds between the two countries from a deeply personal level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Impress Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781911293170

Martin Sorrell

Martin Sorrell taught French at Exeter University until 2012. He has written widely on French literature . His translations of Verlaine, Rimbaud, Apollinaire (and Lorca) have all been published in Oxford World's Classics, and his anthology of modern French poetry by women by University of Exeter Press. Nick Hern Books have brought out his three translations of Molière comedies. Sorrell has also written plays, features, and essays for BBC radio. He and his wife live in Exeter.