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 enlarge | Author: Michael Wright
Publisher: Bantam Books
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £2.50
You Save: £5.49 (69%)
New (22) Used (7) from £2.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 7767
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0553817329
EAN: 9780553817324
ASIN: 0553817329
Publication Date: July 16, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Slight crease on front cover.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Formidable! February 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My husband and I love Michael Wright's Telegraph column and so I bought him this book and he loved it and kept laughing out loud and then I read it and loved it too. It is beautifully written and full of humour and humanity and one laughs and cries with the characters both human and animal that are so well drawn and real. I would strongly recommend it to anyone and we can't wait for the sequel. Thank you Michael.
Superbe! January 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had never heard of Michael Wright prior to reading this book as 'one doesn't take the Telegraph'! However, it is a gorgeous little book about upping sticks and going for a complete change of life in France. It is warm, sad, funny and makes me want to get on a ferry right now! I am very much looking forward to a sequel which I believe is in the pipeline.
 The best "living the dream" book I've read. December 5, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am a sucker for the Brits-going-to-live-in-France books, and have read dozens. This particular one though is very special.
Michael Wright buys a run-down farmhouse in the Limousin, and lives there alone while he tries to "find himself", and as he puts it "become a man". However, far from being a tedious stream of hippyish navel-gazing, this is amusing, informative up to a point, and yet contains moments of real pathos.
He has a very whimsical sense of humour, and some of his flights of fancy are positively surreal, but nonetheless he makes his house and the countryside and the people come alive for the reader - from his beloved animlas to the "piss-artists" in the local bar. It's all fabulous, and if you want to read more, go to the website and follow the serial story of Michael Wright and La Folie!
C'est magnifique! November 13, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Being a great fan of Michael Wright's column in The Telegraph, I was expecting much of "C'est la folie". How completely undisappointed I was!
It probably won't appeal to the type of person who can cheerfully kill an ox with their bare hands, or happily strangle a chicken without a moment's thought, but animal lovers will relate to the author's gentleness and his love of animals, and share his pain at some of the inevitable small tragedies that he faces.
The wit with which this previously timid townie describes his intrepid battle build a life for himself, his cat and his aeroplane in rural France had me sobbing with laughter. He faces all the challenges hurled at him by man, woman and beast, from chasing a runaway cockerel over hill and dale dressed in wellies and pyjamas with no elastic, to breaking up a cat-fight between two hair-pulling harridans in the local supermarket. He throws himself unhesitatingly into local sports, regardless of whether of not he knows anything about them, and occasionally takes to the skies in his vintage aircraft.
If you have a soul, a love of animals, your fellow human beings, and rural France, and appreciate deliciously lyrical writing and subtle humour, you will simply love this book, and you will be praying that the author will find the soulmate he seeks to share his highs and heartaches.
It's a Winner September 21, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I thought there could be nothing to beat Peter Mayle. Like many people I thought ther was a surfeit of books about living in France. I was wrong.
This book by Michael Wright accurately portrays life in rural France as it is today. It is amusing, warm-hearted and I just couldnt put it down once I had started.
I felt as if I knew & understood the Jolibois community. I empathised with the author's feelings towards his animals and to the local tradesmen.
The attitudes of some of the Brits Abroad is portrayed accurately; I hope that if they read this excellent account of a year in the Limousin, and if they recognise themselves, they will do somethging about it!!!
So dont be put off by the dearth of other books on the subject; if you live in France or are thinking of moving here, particularly in to the countryside buy C'est La Folie!
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