If you have ever been to one of the tourist traps basking on the French Riviera, you will undoubtedly have asked yourself the question: why don't they do something about these awful traffic jams? Alain Simondi asked himself the same question, but it was his job to do something about it, and when he did, he found that he had opened a can of worms...The Heat of the Kitchen is a fast-moving, exciting story. Alain Simondi is Mayor of the town, whilst the leader of the opposition on the Town Council is an attractive single mother - who is much closer to the Mayor than her position would imply. Simondi's proposals for building a relief road split the town, and tempers run high, especially when adverse reports start to appear in the regional newspaper, at the hand of a pretty, young, feisty woman reporter who has caught the compulsively roving eye of the Mayor. Who will gain the upper hand, Simondi or his critics? Whose dirty tricks are the most effective? In a part of France where the heat can transform a traffic jam into a murder scene, and the police, supposedly under the control of the Mayor, are not to be trusted - especially, it seems, when faced with an endemic drug culture among the young people of the region, the heat of the political kitchen is even more intense. The author has used his familiarity with, and love of France and the region where Saint-Pierre is situated, to create a fascinating and authentic portrayal of how French local politics work - or might work if this were not a work of fiction.
About the Author: Tony Whelpton has been writing for a long time - in fact he has been doing many things for a long time! He has always lived in England, but has a strong emotional connection to France, and has pursued a number of different careers: for a long time he lectured on French language and literature in a university; for even longer he was one of the UK's most experienced and most influential examiners in both spoken and written French; between 1979 and 2000 he was a best-selling author of French textbooks for schools and colleges; he ran his own publishing company for 16 years, as well as editing newsletters of all kinds, singing for 30 years in a choir with near-professional standards, and doing a lot of broadcasting too. Eventually, at a time when most people retire gracefully, he embarked on a new career which he now realises he should have embraced much earlier in life: writing fiction. He published his first novel at the age of 79, the second appeared a year later, and the third a year after that. As if that was not enough, he has just started work on his fourth. Tony loves literature and the theatre, sport (he played squash until he was 63, then tennis until he was 73 - but two hip replacements and a new knee have put paid to that!), classical music, cooking, and the pleasures of family life: his wife, two cats, three daughters, five grand-children and two great-grandchildren keep him pretty busy - but fortunately not too busy to write! Two things above all keep him going: his long-held belief that life is there for living, and the thought expressed by the great French cellist Paul Tortelier, that "everybody should die young - but as late in life as possible"!