Peter Mayle’s book, kept us cheerful … during dark times in our working lives in UK…when we longed to be in France… but could not be here…
Since we managed to move here… we have met and got to know… every one of the characters he wrote about … the good, the bad and the ugly … 
Not exactly a literary masterpiece but laughed till I cried when I read it. If you haven’t read it and you’ve got a childish sense of humour, it’s perfect!
A good writer who entertains does not have to be a great writer.
They have to command a certain charm and bring the characters
to life.
But he was a great writer as some of his earlier work illustrates. (even if he didn’t do the illustrations)
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22459006884&searchurl=tn%3Dwicked%2Bwillie%2Bstand%2Bup%2Bcomic%26sortby%3D17%26an%3Dpeter%2Bmayle&cm_sp=snippet--srp1--title1
There is no despute .
I am pointing out that what makes a great writer is that
little something…
It is rarely the plot.
It is those characters who become real.
a great shame - had always hoped to bump into him somewhere in the Luberon, but never happened.
It was a joke Barbara, did you open the link?
Fascinating to see that a never-used hard-backed virgin version of the recommended Peter Mayle entity costs £47.46 (only two left) whereas a well-fingered and flabby soft-backed but used version (8 left to be picked up) costs a mere 74p.
A couple of hot numbers there waiting to be grabbed.
It was always a " good year" for him …here in France.
The post started by the Telegraph journalist looking for French living disaster stories seems to have disappeared. A shame as her article was published. A bit light in the facts department but what did we expect?
she did not answer me when I told her to write about the positives.
One clue to this “tale of despair” is when the lady tells us “I convinced him” (her husband"… why did her husband need convincing??.. he should have been as committed/excited as she was…
As I am not a subscriber, I am not allowed to read past the bit “Robert was set to work as an actor for 6 months of the year and enjoy long lunches and aperitifs with neighbours…”
but that is more than enough…I do not need to subscribe 
Sadly, Barbara… our pleasant tales… happy experiences… these do NOT sell newspapers… seems they only want “death and/or despair” type stories…
Looks like the Telegraph may just be doing a re-run of this article from 2009 obviously, they did not get anyone from our Forum giving them a sob story… 
ah but selling good news should be a remedy.
We need to tell them …do we not.
We can (and should) tell them Barbara… we cannot make them print it though…
With OH ailing in bed… I am at a loose end, so trolled through the Comments on the Telegraph’s article…(I cannot read the full Article, but am allowed to view the 163 comments… )
gave me a welcome break… and had me chuckling… as most folk reckoned it was a load of tosh…
And a load of tosh it is.
If you mean the article itself then, assuming that it accurately reflects her experiences then I think “tosh” seems unfair.
Having read the article and a good few of the comments it is, indeed, a rehash of the earlier Daily Mail article; though with a little more flesh on the bones.
I won’t analyse the reasons that the venture failed, except to note that there were a lot of basic mistakes made by the sound of it - but I think that a lot of Brits have an overly rose-tinted view of life in France .The blame for some of which, I’m afraid, needs to be laid squarely at Mr Mayle’s door.
I confess, of course that I am at the head of the queue where it comes to having been influenced by “A Year in Provence”. But, then, I also read Stephen Clarke’s “A Year in the Merde” and its sequel - and still wasn’t put off.