This isn’t entirely book-related but I never said this blog was 100% about books, did I? Many many years ago, I was a journalist with French gay magazine Têtu and I got to interview Rachel Shelley, when her character Helena Peabody was introduced in The L Word. I interviewed a lot of people over the years but this interview was one of a few that stayed with me, because Rachel was particularly lovely, witty, interesting and, you know, nice. Also, extremely pretty and with one of my favourite accents. All of this turned this interview into one of those memories you sometimes fall back on when you want to remember the best parts of a job that wasn’t always making you happy. So when I saw she was looking for audio postcards from around the world, I thought why not? Étretat is a really beautiful place to live and visit and I’m all about sharing the love, right? Of course, nothing’s ever that simple with me, and I ended up also talking about leaving Paris, PTSD, and how wonderful my wife is. Nothing I’ve not written in my reviews before but this time with sounds: the sea, the birds, the metro in Paris…

If you feel like listening, you’ll find the podcast here. You can also listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.