I grew up in La Sarthe in northern France. After graduating in English Literature at the University of Poitiers, I moved to Britain where I married a Francophile and had a son who grew up in a bilingual home. Alongside discovering sisterhood and the vagaries of the 1970s women’s movement, I taught French in a secondary school. Eventually these two experiences converted me to sociology, then one of the keys to the ills of the world, and I found myself studying for fruitful years at the University of Warwick. My Ph.D nearing completion, I moved to Leicester University to work as a researcher at the Centre of Mass Communication Research. I cut the wire at Greenham Common, got divorced and married again, this time to an obstinate non-French speaker.
After ten years of research on public health policy, I feared I was losing my mother tongue. Oblivious of my give-away accent and odd grammar, needing to re-invent myself as French, I persuaded Leicester’s School of Modern Languages to pay for the task.
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How I came to write my first novel
Review
“I am in awe of Yvette Rocheron's story-telling abilities. There are many established authors who would be reluctant to attempt to intercut the husband's voice … but Rocheron pulls this off with aplomb in her debut novel... There's a keen eye for detail which brings it all to life... She covers difficult themes – of immigration (from Europe and Africa), integration and violence with understanding and sympathy.... When I picked this book up I wondered if it was going to be another story along the lines of A Year in Provence where the incomers always seem to shine through against the backdrop of beautiful countryside and bumbling locals... Whilst there is humour in Double Crossings there's a gritty reality that's lacking in Peter Mayle's view of France.”
Sue Magee, The Bookbag
Me in Paris
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