Provence writer Mayle dies at 78
MOVIE director Sir Ridley Scott has praised the success and spirit of Peter Mayle, author of A Year In Provence, who has died at the age of 78 after a short illness.
Sir Ridley, Mayle’s friend and neighbour, said his writing had depicted Anglo-French competitiveness “brilliantly”.
The 2006 film A Good Year, directed by Sir Ridley and starring Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard, was based on Mayle’s best-seller.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “It was all that humorous competitive spirit between the French and the English that Peter captured brilliantly.
“It was quite true about the French and it was quite true about the British.
“Peter was a very kind and successful man and it was driven by his own spirit. You could feel whatever he did, whatever he touched, was going to work.”
A Year In Provence had previously been turned into a TV series starring John Thaw in 1993.
Originally from Sussex, the author moved to France in the late 1980s and wrote several follow-on books inspired by his love for the country, including Toujours Provence and Encore Provence.
His works proved so popular that he later bought a home in Long Island, New York, to escape crowds of sightseers at his French cottage.
In an interview in 1996 he said: “We had people coming up the drive from Japan, Australia, Germany, Sweden, England and America. At the beginning it was quite exciting... then it increased in volume until we were getting four, five, six visits a day.”
In 2002 he was awarded a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur for services to French culture.
It was announced on Thursday night that Mayle died in hospital near his home in the South of France after a short illness.
In 2016, Mayle said he had found contentment in of his two-and-a-half decades in the South of France.
He said: “I am still easily lured from my desk by interesting distractions: A wine tasting, a promising young chef, the rumour of truffles to be found under a nearby oak... a vicious game of petanque in the village.”
He married three times and leaves five children.