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A Diary of Life-Affirming Disasters on the Côte D'Azur

Mediterranean Homesick Blues is The Catcher in the Rye set in Coventry and the Côte d’Azur – from the point of view of a repressed and charmingly naïve Englishman. Written by Ben Chatfield, with contributions and editing from Enzo Cilenti, this is a diary cum cultural smörgåsbord of life-affirming disasters against a backdrop of the glamour and grime of the French Riviera. It chronicles one man’s attempts to love and understand the French, acts of serial romanticism, the use of the subjunctive mood as well as the quest for the ultimate sandwich. It is, in fact, a book about a year in the life of someone you’ve never heard of.

About the book
Set in 1994, the book talks of long-time Francophile, undergraduate and hapless romantic Ben Chatfield spending a year split between teaching English to rowdy teenagers in Cannes and taking drinks orders from their topless mums on a beach in St. Tropez. An autobiographical novel, it is highly observational and filled with cheeky anecdotes. Along with Enzo Cilenti, Ben Chatfield has created an honest, original and disarmingly funny book that defies easy categorization. The humorous diary of a year-long odyssey into both manhood and the French way of life, it’s also a savvy and refreshingly different kind of guidebook – one where you’ll find a list of the most boring French literary classics rather than a top ten list of restaurants.

Talking of the reason behind writing the book, author Ben Chatfield said, “I had read a load of books and articles about living in France and found them clichéd and unrealistic. I still had piles of letters and diary entries from my time abroad and wanted to use them as a start. I thought my experiences were altogether different – a lot more fun, edgier, more real.”

The book is divided into three distinct sections: daily Adrian Mole-esque diary entries taken straight from when Ben was actually in France (ranging from lengthy tales to philosophical one liners such as, “Why do we call the French ‘frogs’?”); very personal letters to his best friend Sod, also contemporary to his own Year Abroad; and informative chapters, with a healthy personal slant, educating the reader on an array of French cultural aspects (entitled, for example, ‘The Existential Guide to French Football’, or ‘MC Solaar and the Rise of French Hip-Hop’). Through the book, the author looks back on his 20 year old self with a certain amount of nostalgic disdain, with insightful and reflexive footnotes throughout the novel to demonstrate the true beauty of hindsight. The novel doesn’t portray just a pretty picture of the exciting European life you can lead on your Year Abroad, but a gritty and real day-by-day account. The title manages to reflect the general sentiment present through the book- it is not all fun and games. Although posing as a young Lothario most of the time, managing to romance a multitude of women from varying walks of life and generally living it up, Ben does suffer bouts of homesickness. There also exists the constant worry that nobody really knows you due a still limited vocabulary- so, the native friends you do make are often rather superficial since a true relationship cannot be founded when you still lack the ability to express yourself as easily as you would in your mother tongue.

The book ends with a satisfying run through of the present situations of all the fore-mentioned characters. It is heart-warming to read that Ben has managed to keep in touch with many of the people he met. Particularly touching is the friendship formed with Enzo, who begins as an archenemy but is then discovered to be a kindred spirit, with the two going on to share some solid experience that has led to a steady and long friendship. Recalling on real life, the book manages to avoid a soppy, happy-ever-after conclusion.

Quirky and witty, Mediterranean Homesick Blues is the inside track on truly understanding (and loving) the French, looking at the more esoteric, impenetrable and non-clichéd parts of their culture: Johnny Hallyday, bronzage a l’integral, importance of the redundant ‘ne’, exactly how the Cannes police like to extract confessions, and how fumer une pipe has nothing at all to do with tobacco.

What people are saying
Alistair Campbell, former Labour Party Director of Communications and Ex-Language Assistant, said about the book- “My year abroad was one of the happiest and most formative of my life and Ben Chatfield’s witty and insightful book brought a lot of those memories flooding back.”

For Anthony Hines, writer of ‘Da Ali G Show’, ‘Borat’, ‘Brüno’, the book proves to be- “Very funny and deeply touching… like if “I” had dumped Withnail and headed South instead of North.”

“This book is honest, hilarious and innocent in its outrageousness… [it] describes perfectly how at one moment you can feel your sense of self (as well as your grip on reality) slipping away, while you sit in some dive eating the cheapest thing on the menu and then suddenly feeling incredible, the world’s greatest English teacher and all round continental superstar…”- Lily Peters, Durham University.

“Ben’s journey as a Language Assistant was the most compelling part of the book. His disastrous first lessons trying control rowdy teenagers were all too familiar, but then, so was his sense of satisfaction from having made a real impact on his students. All Language Assistants, past and present, would relate to his story…”- Amy Kingman.

About the authors
Ben Chatfield runs the creative marketing consultancy OscarMike, lives in London and has been a freelance writer with published work. Enzo Cilenti is an actor, writer and producer living in Los Angeles and London. He is married to actress Sienna Guillory, with whom he has twin daughters.