Joy Levesley

I retired to France five years ago after a career in retail management, and since then I've been able to indulge in my favourite pastime...writing. There's a wide readership for articles on French life, especially from an ex-pat viewpoint, so I've been suppying both humerous and factual reports on all the varied and intruiging aspects of life in the hexagon. Living as I do in one of the more remote and unspoilt areas of the Midi Pyrenees life is never dull and it's a real joy to record it.

Another of my passions food, both the preparation and the consuming of it and food is of great importance wherever you travel in France. Here in the Southwest the diet is hearty, but surprisingly healthy, and I discover new and unusual recipes all the time.

I am also working on two novels which seem to be taking forever. The first one is set in post war France and was inspired by an incident which had taken place during the German Occupation of a small village in which I lived at the time. The second is a collection of short stories set in a fictitious village in East Anglia. Perhaps one day they will be ready to publish but I have the sneaking feeling I will l find the journey may have been more exciting than the arrival.