and decide to buy a suspiciously cheap cottage. FÉVRIER: Make Amour, Not War Tensions as the Iraq war looms. Meanwhile, a girl tries her best to turn me into a Latin lover with an intensive course in French sexual traditions. MARS: The Joy of Suppositories I explore France's wildly generous medical system and even try out typical French "treatment by the back door." AVRIL: Liberté, égalité, Get Out of My Way I find that the French are secretly quite fond of English speakers after all. This is especially true of the exotic Florence. MAI: 1968 and All That With countless long weekends, holiday allowances to be used up, and the inevitable strikes, the French know that if you haven't finished your year's work by May 1, you're in the merde. Explanation of the novel's title The title of the book refers, in a metaphorical way, to all the difficult situations Paul West finds himself in during his stay in France, but also, literally, to the huge amount of dog excrement that can be found in the streets of Paris in this fiction. "A Year in the Merde" is also an allusion to A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, an earlier work on Anglo-French cultural relations. In the same way, the title Merde Actually is a further allusion to the film Love Actually (2003) starring Hugh Grant. In both cases there is a vein of light comedy exploited by director and author respectively. There is the additional coincidence that Love Actually came out in the year in which Stephen Clarke was writing A Year in the Merde and its sequel Merde Actually, and relating it to the war in Iraq which was staged at that time – to the detriment of Franco- US relations. Reference to Shakespeare and Company bookstore At some point, Paul is invited by his friend Jake to a second-hand English bookstore in front of Notre-Dame-de-Paris, where most of the activity is taking place on the second floor, with expats from all over the world. This is a reference to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, in Paris. Plot summary When Paul West starts his new job in September he is altogether unaware of the true character and the machinations of his boss, Jean-Marie Martin, who is in his early fifties, rich, handsome, impeccably dressed, friendly, and prepared to pay him a good salary. West does not know