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If you visit France, or live there, or simply like to laugh, this collection of tales from determined francophile Barry Cornell will keep you in stitches. 'Make Mine a Kilowatt' recounts the delights and disappointments, pleasures and pitfalls, surprises and shocks that await the unsuspecting Anglo Saxon who chooses to make his home across the Channel. It covers topics as various as the French passion for eating the inedible, their often bizarre social customs, and of course their attitudes to the British. This is French life up close and personal, told in a series of hilarious episodes which mirror the author's experiences in trying to settle and survive, and integrate into his local community, in south-west France.
About the author
Barry Cornell was born at a very early age in a mining village in northern England where he grew up in the normal way, eventually graduating to long pants, long hair and aspirations of rock stardom. His early career in accountancy came to an abrupt end when he inadvertently dropped Lady Borg Ropner (deceased)'s Fourth Children's Settlement file down a toilet. He almost had a normal teaching career until he discovered learning difficulties and became the Head of a special school. He and his wife have lived in France since 2002, latterly in Haute Vienne which they describe to prospective visitors as the French Midlands, to put them off. Make Mine a Kilowatt is his first book. He is working on a sequel.
