French Publications
Vacances Anglaises (Du Seuil, 2000)
Left: The film tie-in version, showing the star,
Charlotte Rampling. Centre: the DVD
Right: Previous cover
An unforgettable trip to the further shores of lust, snobbery and adultery, Summer Things is the much-loved bestselling comedy by one of Britain’s funniest novelists. With a whirlwind plot and characters who let nothing stand between them and pleasure,
Summer Things hurtles along with exhilarating momentum – unstoppable, startling and hilarious.
Embrassez qui vous voudrez (Du Seuil, 2002)
The Film tie-on of Summer Things and the DVD.
Above left: Joseph Connolly with the writer/actor/director Michel Blanc on set in Paris
during the making of the film Embrassez qui vous Voudrez, based on the novel Summer Things, published in France as Vacances Anglaises
Above right: Joseph Connolly with director Michel Blanc in Monte Carlo 2003 when the film Embrassez qui vous Voudrez was awarded the prize at the film festival for the best European adaptation of a novel
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N'oublie pas mes petits souliers (Du Seuil, 2001)
All those things of last summer have changed everyone –heartbreaks, jealousies and various alarming pressures. For John Powers it means squaring up to the reality of losing his beautiful wife Lulu, simply because of his pathological and totally unfounded sexual paranoia and subsequent homicidal delusions. Brian and Dotty Morgan, uncomfortably squatting in a caravan in well-to-do ex-neighbours Howard and Elizabeth Street’s driveway, are learning how to live with not having it all, none of it in fact – although that doesn’t stop Dotty conspiring to secure for herself Dawn, uncared-for baby of Melody, even if it means resorting to crime. Meanwhile, their fifteen-year-old son Colin has fallen in love with the fabulous Carol but her unforgiving brother Terry would prefer to see Colin dead.
Winter is also being unkind to Norman Furnish, who lost his job working for Howard and with it Howard’s beloved daughter Katie, who herself is hitched up with a Neanderthal gun-toting romancer from Chicago, Rick, as well as Melody’s former squeeze, Miles McInerney, an amoral, cocky (and married) salesman. And what of Howard and Elizabeth – can his new love Laa-Laa and her current fling, Zoo-Zoo (Howard’s ex –don’t ask), help them find peace, contentment and sexual nirvana this Christmas.
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Drôle de bazar (Gallimard, 2002)
To Emily, her interior design business is everything, but to her clueless husband, Kevin, it’s just a load of stuff. He despairs of her, and turns instead to Milly – but their brief time together in Brighton has unforeseen and dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, Emily embarks on an affair with a PR man called Raymond. But it soon becomes apparent that he’s much keener on her daughter Shelley…
A rich, darkly funny and densely plotted novel, Stuff moves at an unflagging pace towards a surprising and electrifying denouement.
Ca ne peut plus durer (Du Seuil, 2003)
At just another drinks party he very nearly chose not to go to, Jeremy catches sight of Maria and is instantly attracted to her. Completely under her spell, he embarks on an affair and becomes answerable to her every whim. Meanwhile his weife Anne orders him out of the house for entirely different reasons–she’s concluded he’s having an affair with the nanny of their two children. As an unstoppable chain of events follows, the lives of Jeremy, Anne and an ever expanding circle of characters are changed forever in a novel rich with humour, absurdity, sex, pain and puzzlement.
Earlier cover
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SOS (Du Seuil, 2004)
It takes just six days and nights to cross the Atlantic on the Transylvania – a vast and luxurious liner – and by the time the ship docks in New York, the lives of all 1600 people on board will have been changed. What seemed to be a set of inviolate futures now lies in utter disarray amid the deep waters surrounding this singular and floating castaway city.
Earlier cover
L'amour est une chose étrange (Flammarion, 2007)
Clifford is an eight-year old schoolboy; Annette, his troubled elder sister, is on the cusp of adolescence and coping with a convent education. Their mother, Gillian, an archetypal fifties housewife, is devoted to Clifford until life and events propel her elsewhere. Her husband, Arthur is dictatorial and aloof, and in time his inner turmoils are to result in swift and devastating consequences for the family.
Earlier cover
Rich in cultural detail of Britain throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Love is Strange is a beautifully written and quite unforgettable novel of family life framed by a darkly English humour.
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A selection of editions from other countries
From left to right: Greece, Poor Souls; Portugal, Summer Things; Germany, Stuff; Portugal, Stuff; Sweden, Summer Things; Russia, The Works
