How involved were you in the film of Chocolat? I think Paris (and France in general) is filled with nostalgic and hopeful stereotypes, but real French people know the difference between real life and Amélie, and alter their expectations accordingly. There are certainly a lot of elegant people there, but that’s equally true of London, New York, Prague, Moscow and Milan. I’m not even sure if it really applies to Paris: certainly I’ve never seen any particular sign of it when I’ve been living there. If you go for dinner you have to be entertaining … You have to live up to Paris with your silhouette.” Does the same apply to small French towns and villages – places like Lansquenet-sous-Tannes where you set the Chocolat series? You have to make an effort every time you go out. When you live there, she told me, you have to meet its standards. I once interviewed Alicia Drake, who wrote I Love You Too Much, set in Paris. Honestly, no: when I’m describing food I don’t feel the need to eat a lot (in the same way, when I’m writing about murder, I don’t get any more homicidal than usual). Did you have to limit yourself per chapter as to how many times you wrote evocatively about sweet treats so you wouldn’t cave too?
I’ve been listening to you read Chocolat on my way to work these past couple of days, and twice I’ve caved and bought myself chocolate before getting into the office.
Here Sam Bennett asks her about the standards of Paris and just how progressive Britain really is. This year Harris – also flautist and singer in the #Storytime Band – will receive the festival’s honorary fellowship as well. The FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival 2019 welcomes author Joanne Harris, talking about her life, work and return to her best-known characters with new book The Strawberry Thief – the fourth novel in the series which opened gorgeously with Chocolat 20 years ago.
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