‘A Year In Provence’ author Mayle dies aged 78

LONDON: Peter Mayle, who wrote the best-selling memoir “A Year In Provence”, has died at the age of 78, his publishers announced.

Following a short illness, the British author died on Thursday in a hospital near his beloved home in southern France, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf said.

“A Year In Provence”, about Mayle’s first 12 months after relocating to the south of France, was released in 1990 with an initial print run of 3,000.

The witty tale of moving into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the lavender-scented, remote countryside, and adapting to the slower Provencal way of life, went on to sell six million copies in 40 languages.

Its infectious warmth for the south of France and the local lifestyle and culture fired up the imaginations of thousands of Britons and others to seek the same romantic dream.

Alfred A. Knopf announced on Twitter late on Thursday that Mayle, who had written “multiple best-selling books about life in Provence, died early today at a hospital near his home in the south of France”.

Mayle wrote several followon books, including “Toujours Provence” and “Encore Provence”.

Film director Ridley Scott, his friend and neighbour, directed the 2006 film “A Good Year”, starring Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard, which was based on Mayle’s book of the same name.

“It was all that humorous competitive spirit between the French and the English that Peter captured brilliantly,” Scott told BBC radio.

He was made a knight in France’s Legion d’Honneur in 2002 for his services to French culture.