Remember your French class at school? I do. At least, I remember the class. I sat beside one of our six Annes, with two others in front, and we had Roddy up the back who kept us all amused with clever remarks… What I don’t remember much of is the actual French, which is a great pity. This week, I’ve wished a couple of times I had Madame at my right elbow.
We had two happy book events last week here in N.E. Switzerland. Tuesday saw the publication of Baby Dear, and like most new mothers, at first I only had eyes for my new-born. When I took a moment to look at the big wide world again, I saw a small girl in a blue and white dress, staring out at the cold, cold sea… Olivia.
The French edition of The Cold Cold Sea has finished its year in the French book club it was in, has been given a brand new cover by its publisher, Presses de la Cité, and is available as a regular purchase.
It’s lovely to see my book out and about, even if I don’t understand what people are tweeting about it. Wish I’d paid more attention back in the day, in room 52…
As for Baby Dear, we are just past the middle of the blog tour, so I’ll be posting more about that when it’s over, but I’ll say again – THANK YOU, to all the amazing bloggers who have given their time and a corner of their blog to my baby. High spot of the week was reaching 18 in the Crime category on Amazon UK – a big category, so I’m delighted with that.
I’ve drunk quite a lot of Prosecco this week, but hey – I can celebrate my baby, can’t I? And my new small girl…
linda huber 
The Cold Cold Sea sounds so good and I’ll definitely look out for the French version as well as the English one! And of course, Baby Dear is on my TBR 😀 If there are any reviews or things you’d like me to translate for you, don’t hesitate!
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Thank you, Donna – I might have to take you up on the translation offer sometime! Fortunately, tweets are nice and short… 🙂
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I’ll do my best, after all, I’ve trained in Translation for a while!! 🙂
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Yes – and you’re living ‘in French’, aren’t you? My daily life is in German, but that doesn’t help much here! 🙂
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I’m a pure Frenchie stuck in Bordeaux when she’d sell house and dogs to move to England, haha! (well, maybe not the dogs…) Never learned a word of German! 🙂
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Right – I thought you were in Belgium! My mistake! No, don’t sell your dogs, poor loves… give them a pat from me, we don’t have one now.
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Nope, I love waffles, but it’s because I was born and raised in the north of France, close to Belgium 😀 Will do, they can’t resist a bit of attention, those babies 🙂
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🙂
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French is one of the major languages in Switzerland, so we had to learn it in school. Not my favorite topic, I have to admit. I was immediately attracted to English, loved it from the beginning, but kept struggling with French. Finally, at the university in the United States of all places, I studied French literature in more depth and began to really love it. But as far as my spoken French, don’t ask me for directions to the train station or any other place for that matter. I stumble and stutter! Congratulations, Linda, for the French translation of your book!!
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Thanks, Christa! I was quite dismayed to see how little French I remember. I thought the fact of having written the book would make it easier to understand in French, but oh, dear… I would love to be trilingual like you, but I guess I never will be!
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Well, I hardly call myself trilingual. I think if I lived in a French speaking country for a while, I might be able to actually speak the language. Right now, I stutter French … ha!
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Most of the time, I just say, merci bien… #atheendofmyFrench
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I was surprised when I went to Paris how much I understood when reading French but I can’t speak it, or understand when it is spoken to me. Embarrassing really. I did try at school but my French teacher had a breakdown in my O Level year and had to leave… that did not stop me sending her my work to mark and comment on though, poor woman 😦 Determined, moi? I think so!!
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Your passive vocabulary is always much larger than your active, I see that in my English language teaching all the time. The thing about my school days was, we were taught to read and write French. To learn to speak a language, you have to practise actual speaking, and there wasn’t enough of that in our day. And you hang onto your determination, Georgia, it’s done you well this far! x
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It must have been nice seeing your book translated into another language, Linda. Well done, and I hope your success continues. 🙂
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Thank you – it’s lovely! Frustrating, though… I hope your projects are going well too – let’s email soon and catch up 🙂
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