The product of his parents' ferociously antagonistic genes, François Théodore Thistlethwaite is a split-identity 'Frenglishman', born of an English father and French mother. Any one of his three alter egos - the Marxist Frenchman, François, his ultra-conservative English brother, Thistlethwaite, or Théodore, their philosophical middle voice of reason - can be invested with control of the whole in order to expound on some of those différences which cause English and French 'geographically separated by just a narrow stretch of shallow brine, to be mentally vast oceans apart'. Illustrated by a host of amusing anecdotes based on the author's own experiences and observations during his forty years of survival among the French, François Théodore Thistlethwaite's FRENGLISH THOUGHTS gives us a seriously humorous insight into such diverse subjects as French and English women, the Puritan syndrome, the Marxist factor, queuing, the French driver, sporting fair play and many more - some of which are provocative enough to rock the very foundations of the Entente Cordiale.
About the Author: Born in Hampshire (the old one not the new), but proudly claiming Yorkshire stock, Barry's love affair with France started at the tender age of eleven when he began learning the language at secondary school. A few years later it was still passionate enough for him to go on to study French language and literature at Reading University where he graduated longer ago than he'd now like to admit. He then worked as a commercial manager for a brewery, but soon realizing that selling beer wasn't his cup of tea, he went back to the same university to obtain a teaching diploma. After teaching French for two years in Bradford, he successfully applied to go on an official teacher exchange to France where he taught English for a year in a lycée. And he never came back! Setting up his own English-language teaching, translation and interpreting business, the next forty years gave Barry the opportunity to observe and experience many of those things which go to cause the only similarity between French and English to be the colours of their flags. Unlike the multiple-identity character he has created, however, Barry only occasionally hears voices, and lives a relatively sane life of retired meditation with his French companion, Renée, in the Jura region of France. Hobbies, interests and pastimes are nothing more disquieting than golf, gardening, foreign travel, the 19th century English and American novel, French cooking, a glass or two of good wine ... and, of course, creative writing.