They Eat Horses, Don't They: The Truth About the French

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The centuries-old, love-hate relationship with our closest neighbour has spawned a plethora of myths and stereotypes. In recent years our stock of received wisdom about the French land of the sophisticated lover, the wine-fuelled lunch, the gitane-puffing philosopher, the hairy female armpit and the rebarbatively squalid toilet has been replenished by a new generation of lifestyle myths: that French women don't get fat, that French children don't throw food, that their countryside has been colonized by Boden-clad, Volvo-driving Brits. In THEY EAT HORSES, DON'T THEY, Piu Das Eatwell explores the background to, and the contemporary evidence for, 45 such myths. She finds that many of them are simply false, and that even those that are broadly true are rather more complicated than at first sight. In the course of her thorough and thoroughly entertaining investigations, we discover there is more to our enigmatic Gallic neighbour than 365 types of cheese, and that the reality of modern French life is very different from the myths that we create about it.

Reviews

Blowing away the cliched perception of our neighbours... A fine read' * The Sun *
Bracingly factual... tackles egregious stereotypes head-on' * Daily Mail *
An intriguing portrait of just how much France has changed... the perfect antidote for the disconnect between what modern-day France is really like and how we romantically perceive it' * Spectator *
Entertaining and fluently written. * The Times *

Author Bio

Of mixed Asian/English descent, Piu Marie Eatwell has a congratulatory First Class degree from Oxford University. She has lived and worked in France for ten years.