AN excellent read. Viv Groskop takes a light-hearted look at how to bring more humour and happiness into our lives through French literature

Viv Groskop may wish she were a little more French. Like many people perhaps the world over. Starting at the age of 11 she studied the language obsessively and spent every vacation in France. Her desperation to escape her Britishness is obvious in pursuit of that French chic characterisation she feels more aligned and in comfort with. The author is cultured – a writer, comedian and journalist by trade.

In Au Revoir, Tristesse, Groskop blends literal history and memoir to explore how the classics of French literature can infuse our lives with joie de vivre (the joy of living) and how to say goodbye to sadness.

This is a cleverly written book. It is, in effect, a love letter to the great French writers: from the frothy hedonism of Colette and the wit of Cyrano de Bergerac to the intoxicating universe of Marguerite Duras and the heady passions of Les Liaisons dangereuses.

There are chapters on Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Albert Camus, and of course Françoise Sagan. This is a delectable cultural read for book lovers everywhere.