This post was republished into my blog’s original timeline from my lost post archive.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a reception for bloggers to celebrate the legacy of Georges Simenon. It was hosted by the team from literary agents Peters Fraser Dunlop (PFD) that manage the Simenon estate in the UK, the venue was the Groucho Club, and this time I got to talk to everybody!
I was to have met Victoria there, but sadly trains didn’t work out and she was unable to come, however it was lovely to catch up with Sakura, and to meet a whole lot of new-to-me bloggers including: Sarah of Crimepieces; Andy of Euro But Not Trash; Charlie of The Worm Hole; Elizabeth of Fictionbitch and her author blog; and Ayo of Shotsmag.
The main attraction, however, was the chance of meeting Georges’s son, John (left, please excuse the fuzzy photo), who is heading up the renaissance of interest in his father’s work. It was a thrill to hear him talk lovingly of his father – who was always there for him – putting family above writing. John also talked about his father’s writing process – and very much like Maigret, he spent a long time letting everything come together in his mind before polishing his typewriter and writing.
John also had some exciting news for us – they are making a couple of new Maigret films for ITV – but you’ll never guess who will play the pipe-smoking detective – none other than Rowan Atkinson. Filming starts in the autumn for spring 2016. Interesting casting indeed! John confessed that he preferred Rupert Davies to Michael Gambon in previous UK TV series.
He was very laid back and lovely to talk to. I mentioned that I’d read one of the romans durs in preparation for the event: Three Bedrooms in Manhattan, and asked how autobiographical it was (review to follow), and he told me that it was basically a novelisation of how his mother and father met. Sweet!
We also discussed the wonderful new Penguin editions – their aim is to republish all of Simenon’s work, both Maigret and the romans durs, in new translations – they’re coming out at a couple per month. The Simenon estate really want the world to re-engage with his work – and I must say I’m very happy to do so. Having read probably half the Maigrets in my teens, I’ve started to read them again and found them very enjoyable. You can get a taster from Lizzy Siddals’ piece for Shiny New Books last year on the new Maigret reprints. I’m particularly looking forward to reading more of the romans durs though, I read Dirty Snow a few years ago, and it is so dark in comparison with the Maigrets – loved it – my review here.
It was a lovely afternoon. Thank you to John, Simenon.com and the PFD estates team, and Penguin who supplied lots of Maigrets for us to take away.
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